Personal Log, Commander Shepard, SSV Normandy
by JoshuaN7
Summary: Commander Shepard's personal log, detailing the events of the Mass Effect series. Commander Joshua Shepard is a spaceborn warhero, paragon inclination. He is first and foremost a soldier; his duty is to serve and defend humanity, no matter the cost. Installments will occur on a weekly basis. Comments and feedback welcome. If you like it, pass it on. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**1 Eden Prime**

\- I have been given the honour of second-in-command aboard the Alliance's latest ship, an innovative development in military technology and strategy. Stealth and Recon 1, or the Systems Space Vessel Normandy, is a joint effort of the finest minds in the Alliance and the Turian navies. Her stealthiness and speed exceed anything to date, and should lay the groundwork for a promising new field of development.

The Normandy is indeed a prototype of ambitious design. Aside from visual contact, the Normandy is virtually impossible to detect unless she enters or drops out of light-speed. This inability to conceal arrival in any given system is a major weakness, albeit a theoretically manageable one. If the ship's pilot can place the entry point within a masked area, such as a dust cloud or the blind side of a space body, maintaining the element of surprise is possible. Such accuracy, however, would require a pilot of extraordinary talent.

When I asked the ship's pilot, one Lieutenant Moreau, about the feasibility of such a feat, he assured me with gusto that he was capable of pulling off "any stunt short of an Asari Shimmy with this baby." Moreau appears solidly saddled with the nickname "Joker," and he gleefully lives up to it. Let us hope he also lives up to his brag of skill. Captain Anderson assures me that, despite Moreau's borderline insubordination, he will prove himself worth his shenanigans.

Much as I appreciate the opportunity to serve aboard such a vessel, I am not entirely at ease. The Normandy combines Human and Turian technology, and funding from both the Citadel and Alliance, but is technically Human property, complete with Human crew and command, belonging to the Alliance Navy. Joining efforts to design and build the ship is one thing, ceding it without question to Humanity is another. Why? Do the Turians feel confident enough in their own ships that they feel at ease in helping Humans build the Normandy? Is it an open and honest gesture of good-will? Or will they at some future opportune moment attempt to lay claim to the vessel? They would certainly have a strong argument in such a case, and the result would be a political nightmare, to say the least. Maybe that is the point. Perhaps merely the possibility of such an inconvenience is enough for the Turian Hierarchy, a bargaining chip against the Alliance in the event of future dispute.

Perhaps I am too quick to judge, too hasty to see deceit and subterfuge. Or am I? The First Contact War was not all that long ago, only twenty six years; can two entirely different species of warlike history so quickly make peace, not just within themselves, but with each-other? I hope so. It was fortunate indeed the Asari stepped in before the war progressed very far. Whatever the outcome and whoever the eventual winner, it is certain Humans and Turians alike would have fared ill indeed had hostilities been allowed to continue. Should future mishap or malice provoke another altercation, it may not be again quelled before too late.

But such grim broodings are beyond the scope of my knowledge. Of more immediate concern is the purpose of this, our first mission, the Normandy's maiden voyage. Ostensibly we are merely to test the stealth systems and ensure that the ship performs smoothly, but I suspect otherwise. Even the crew are talking amongst themselves, speculating about our true intent and purpose. It is only natural the presence of a Turian Spectre would set tongues wagging. Officially, Nihlus is here to oversee the launch and first flight of the Normandy and report back to the Citadel Council.

Hogwash. If a report on their investment was all the Council wanted, they could have sent almost anyone. Any individual with the proper security clearance would suffice, so why a Spectre? An agent of his calibre could disable the ship and kill half the crew before anyone was even aware of the danger. I know I shouldn't suspect ill of an individual who has given me no specific reason to distrust him, but nevertheless I've been watching him. I have an uneasy feeling he's also watching me. If so, why me specifically? Captain Anderson is the more prestigious soldier, longer service record. What is the Turian's purpose and how does it relate to our mission? If I have a weakness it is impatience. I don't like being kept in the dark. I informed Captain Anderson of my concerns, and have his private assurance that Nihlus can be trusted. I hope he's right.

At least this assignment smacks of action. For too long lately, I've been commanding honour guards for dignitaries politicking on Illium. I suspect someone up the chain of command thinks they've been doing me a favour by assigning me cushy guard duty, perhaps as a reward for Elysium. I've tried to see it as a privilege, but it's not why I joined the navy. The way I see it, a marine is best sent where he can apply his training, not standing around like a flower pot on display.

\- Distress call received from Eden Prime, our destination. Mission details finally divulged. We are to discreetly pick up an intact Prothean Beacon unearthed by the colony. Safe money says the dig was leaked.

Intel is limited. Transmission from the squad protecting the Beacon was cut short, whether by destruction of the com or active jamming. In either case, no further transmissions have been received. All we know is that the marines there are under attack and taking heavy casualties. And something else. Just before the transmission cut out, the HUD camera from the soldier transmitting caught a glimpse of something in the sky above the colony. If pressed, I'd have to say it more closely resembled a great, black, hand than anything else I can bring to mind. Whether an incredible alien creature hitherto undiscovered or unregistered ship design or monster pulled from the shadows of nightmare I cannot say. We're moving in fast and quiet. We don't have the troop complement to cover the entire colony. I will deploy with a small team to secure the Beacon and find out what on Earth is going on. Hopefully we can avert disaster long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

In light of the emergency unfolding on the peaceful colony ahead of us and the unknown assailants that threaten the innocents there, another note I should make seems almost trivial by comparison. Nihlus is here for dual purpose: to ensure fair dealing and secure retrieval of the Beacon, and to assess my abilities for candidacy in the Spectres. It seems my actions on Elysium have reached even Turian ears. If Humanity gets a Spectre, that's one step from a seat on the Council. I'm honoured, but not altogether pleased. I will of course follow orders from Alliance Command and accept the position if approved, but I would far prefer not to have my loyalties and duty divided between my superiors and the Citadel Council. It may work out smoothly or it may not. I have no very great desire to become a political tool only to find myself falling between two stools.

Deceleration alert is active. We are about to enter sublight.

\- Mission failed. We saved the colony, but the crucial target is lost; the Beacon is destroyed. Corporal Jenkins and Nihlus are dead. The attackers were Geth. Why they have chosen to appear now after two hundred years of absolute isolation is unknown. Clearly they were on Eden Prime for the Beacon, but how in blazes did they find out about it? Is it possible they have allies among organics? If so, why were none present in force? I was expecting Batarian raiders, not killer robots.

There was only one member of the attacking force that was not Geth. My team never caught sight of him. We only have one eyewitness, a dockworker named Pallete, who can attest to his presence. Nihlus had gone ahead to scout out the enemy's position. Pallete, hidden amongst cargo crates, saw Nihlus let his guard down upon seeing another Turian who he addressed as Saren. Saren shot him in cold blood.

Saren is a Spectre like Nihlus. Why he has aligned with the Geth is unknown. What I do know is that Saren betrayed and shot Nihlus and tried to destroy the entire colony. He and the Geth must have gotten whatever it was they wanted from the Beacon, as they left it behind to be destroyed by the nuke-level charges they had set. We disarmed the charges, but the Beacon self-destructed.

I don't even want to think about the Beacon. I've had nightmares of my own, but the Beacon held something different. When I approached it, I was caught up and my mind filled with sights I can neither understand nor unsee. It was as though I found myself witness to all the horrors of a mass genocide in the space of a few seconds. When I came to my senses I was in the Normandy med bay, fifteen hours later.

Captain Anderson insists the vision imparted by the Beacon be included in our report to the Council. But what are we to tell them? I can't sort out in my own mind what it was I saw, much less deliver a comprehensive report. Such a vague and subjective story can only serve to weaken our case against Saren. Proving his guilt to the Council will be hard enough without discrediting our charges through mention of dreams. Incredibly, we have no security footage to recover from Eden Prime. All the security cameras at the space dock had their circuitry and software fried. Why would the Geth have bothered to wipe software record of their attack, given that they intended to nuke the entire colony and all evidence of their presence? The best guess we can make is that their ship, the shape we saw above Eden Prime, damages unprotected equipment automatically. If so, setting aside its incredible size, it will prove a tough ship to defeat.

A lot of people died on Eden Prime today. The squads guarding the Beacon, the 212 and the 232, leave but one surviving marine. Of the civilians at the Eden Prime spaceport, dockworkers, scientists, and others, most were massacred. And two soldiers died on my watch. Corporal Jenkins; bright-eyed and eager for adventure, he was gunned down by Geth fire almost as soon as we touched down. The poor chap would have done better to stay at home. He's not the first soldier to die under my command and he won't be the last. At least he died on his native planet, his feet firmly planted as he stood defending the ground he was born and raised on. Nihlus. Not under my command, to be sure, but he was an ally on the field. I regret having mistrusted him. He wasn't Alliance, he wasn't even human, but he was assigned to the field with my team and died. Would that he hadn't insisted on moving ahead of us alone. Jenkins died in honest battle. Nihlus was betrayed. Both will be avenged.

The death count could have been much worse. Though the mission was nominally a failure, the entire colony would now be a smoking crater had we not intervened. That doesn't negate the loss of the Beacon, but given a choice between the two, I'd lose the Beacon any day. We lost historical intel of unknown value. So be it. Our job is to protect lives, not increase our knowledge of Prothean technology and culture.

We have a new crewmember. Captain Anderson has reassigned the sole survivor of the 212, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, to the Normandy. I've seen Williams in action, and she proves herself one of the most capable soldiers I've ever seen. A quick eye and a deadly shot, she will make an excellent addition to the team. It stands greatly to her credit that she survived an ambush that decimated her squad.

The Beacon, or what is left of it, is on-board. Citadel scientists will do what they can with it, but no one holds out much hope. In all likelihood, the best we can get from that heap of rubble is the mess sitting in the back of my mind.


	2. Chapter 2, The Citadel

**2 The Citadel**

\- The Council has officially ordered investigation into Saren and the Geth and just as officially and quickly cleared him of charges. True, we didn't have much preliminary evidence, only Pallete's testimony, but they didn't give the investigation anything like a reasonable time. Saren wasn't even brought in for questioning, no attempt made to find him or ascertain his doings and whereabouts. He merely attended the hearing in holoform, scoffed at humans in general and Captain Anderson in particular, received his dismissal, and left. The Turian C-Sec officer assigned to his case, Garrus Vakarian, is furious. I'm going to try to find him and see what if we can dig up anything together. His superiors won't tell me where he is, so it's time to get snoopy.

\- We've done it. We have the evidence we need against Saren. A Quarian pilgrim, Tali-Zorah nar Raiya, had heard of the Geth attack, and succeeded in stalking and disabling a lone unit. Amazingly, she also managed to salvage portions of its data core. In the data is audio recording of Saren speaking: "Eden Prime was a major victory; the Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the 'Conduit'." A second, mature, female, voice adds "And one step closer to the return of the 'Reapers'."

According to the Geth memory logs, the "Reapers" were a race of highly advanced machines that hunted the Protheans to extinction and then vanished. We have no clue what the "Conduit" is supposed to be.

At first, I was inclined to suspect the "Reapers" a clever and convenient fabrication used by Saren to sway the Geth to his cause, whatever that may be (given his attempt to detonate explosives on the colony at Eden Prime, we can make a good guess). But the vision suggests otherwise. The name "Reapers" seems to fit with uncanny ease into the blurred glimpses of death and horror. I am convinced that these "Reapers" were indeed responsible for the death of the Prothean race, and that the Beacon held the story of their ghastly doom.

Captain Anderson again insists we disclose all of our findings to the Council. But there is no way they will believe this story about the Reapers. Hopefully, when the audio log passes survey for fabrication, they will finally admit Saren's guilt. Then we can arrest him, interrogate him, and determine the truth of the matter.

\- Well, it's happened. I didn't think it would actually come about, but the Earth Systems Alliance now has a Spectre. Me. When Saren's guilt was officially established, the Council dubbed me a Spectre and tasked me with apprehending him. "All efforts will be made to bring him to justice." In other words, send the human after him with a fancy title as compensation. I know I should be grateful, and I suppose I am. The Spectres are a highly respected and prestigious organization, and the honour has never been granted to a human before. Also, being a Spectre, I now hold nearly unlimited power to operate beyond the scope of the law, using any means I deem necessary to bring the guilty to justice. Answering only to the Council, I essentially have the power of judge, jury, and executioner.

What a paradox. I've been given precisely the tools I need to hunt down and bring to justice possibly the most dangerous fugitive in the galaxy, and at the same time oppose and detest the power I now hold. I'm a soldier. I serve the Alliance, reporting up the chain of command to my superiors, bound by established law and regulation. But I am now also a shadow operative, answerable only to a small circle of interstellar politicians, and then only if I make an unavoidable nuisance of myself. So be it. I'll take this boon and use it as best I may.

Predictably, the Council dismisses the Reapers entirely. An inconvenient truth if true, therefore it must be false.

Another stark change I must with regret set down; Captain Anderson has ceded command of the Normandy to me. Apparently the Alliance military is taking a back seat to politics and social signalling. Captain Anderson is taking this with supreme graciousness and self-control. Losing command of the Alliance's finest vessel so soon and through no fault of his own is unwarranted. The Captain deserves better than to be shoved behind a desk. I owe it to him to ensure this is not wasted.

We have three leads on Saren. Aside from the attack on Eden Prime, we have reports of Geth activity on Feros and Noveria. There is also the possibility of tracking Benezia, the second voice in the recording. Benezia is an old and powerful Asari Matriarch. Our best link to her at this time is her daughter, Dr. Liara T'Soni. Dr. T'Soni may or may not be involved, but she's an expert on Protheans, and may have knowledge relevant to this investigation. We still have no idea what the Conduit is or what it has to do with the return of the Reapers. Captain Anderson will try to dig up what he can in the Citadel archives, but it is highly unlikely he'll find anything of use. This business of sentient machines wiping out the Protheans and vanishing without a trace is not substantiated by any official information. Dr. T'Soni has been out in the field for nearly fifty years, with little contact with official channels. If any recently discovered and unreported findings are in existence, they are likely in her possession.

Of the courses available, Feros should take priority. That planet holds a young and small human colony with no defences worth mentioning. If they're under threat from the Geth, it's clear where I'm needed most.

I bumped into a salarian on the Citadel scanning the Keepers. Apparently these non-communicative creatures manage and maintain the station's most basic functions and pre-date the Asari's discovery of the Citadel. Everyone simply takes them for granted, no one bothers to ask why they tend the Citadel or where they come from. Are they a genetically fabricated maintenance race put in place by the Protheans? It seems the best hypothesis, but I don't like it. The matter strikes me as being to quickly glossed over. Should something happen to the Keepers, or should they suddenly decide to go on strike, it might take months to even years to learn how to fill their vacated role. In the meantime, thousands of lives on the Citadel could be lost for want of life support, and the station would be crippled and helpless. In my first extra-legal action, I've not only let the Salarian, Chorban, go free, I've even agreed to help him in his study of the Keepers. During my short visit on the Citadel, I've seen and scanned quite a few of these innocuous Keepers. Should Chorban's study of the Keepers turn up anything useful, I'll see to it that Citadel Administration gets the information. Chorban will of course remain anonymous.

I have other demands upon my attention beyond the mission to find Saren and the Conduit. An Alliance patrol has gone missing in the Strenuus system and the region is now declared restricted, Alliance ships forbidden access. As a Spectre, I'm the only option this side of several weeks negotiation for finding the lost marines. I've personally assured Admiral Kahoku on the Citadel that I'll try to find his missing team. I've also promised a civilian merchant whose brother's ship went missing that I'll help if I can. I need to be three men with three ships. Maybe four.

We have three non-Alliance personel on board, all of them aliens. Garrus the Turian, Tali the Quarian, and Wrex, a Krogan mercenary who says he knows when something big is brewing and wants to be in the middle of it. If this big hulking fellow wants to make himself useful, I'll take his help. Garrus has resigned his post in C-Sec for the chance to take down Saren "free from red tape." Tali wants lend her aid on this important mission, and as she has already provided us with essential intel, I don't feel I can refuse her. I will, however, think twice before taking her directly into the line of fire. She's earned the right to come aboard for the voyage and a front-seat view of the mission, but capable though she is, she's still a kid, and shouldn't be thrust into the thick of danger. That business is for the Marines, the Turian agent, and the Krogan battlemaster.

I should analyse and map out my team, their abilities and qualities.

Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Alliance Marine, a resourceful and multi-talented soldier with both technical and biotic training, highly professional and conscientious.

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Alliance Marine, a tough and sharp straight-up fighter, with deadly aim and canny combat instinct, empathetic and opinionated.

Garrus Vakarian, recently detective of Citadel Security, an efficient and cunning marksman with hacking and technical skills, impatient and enthusiastic while understated. Resents excessive regulation, may require careful coaching.

Urdnot Wrex, Krogan mercenary, large and strong even for his kind, Wrex has an impressive record as an unstoppable killing machine, deadly with both firearms and biotics. For a Krogan he seems uncaricaturistically calm and reflective. Definitely one to keep a judicious eye on.

Tali'Zorah nar Raya, Quarian pilgrim, young and earnest, a brilliant technician with uncommon knowledge of Geth and their function and design, possess unique combat hacking techniques tailored for targets with artificial intelligence. A bright and promising kid who really shouldn't be anywhere near the sort of danger we'll be heading into.

This mission may determine the fate of the galaxy. The Reapers are no myth, the Beacon's vision leaves no doubt of that. Whatever and wherever they are, Saren thinks he can bring them back. Why doesn't really matter. It's up to the Normandy and her crew to ensure that won't happen.

This is a race against time. Whatever the "Conduit" is, we have to stop Saren before he can find it. Whatever the Council says, the vision on Eden Prime leaves me in no doubt whatsoever. The Reapers destroyed the Protheans, and will destroy all of us if Saren succeeds. The rest of the Galaxy won't raise a finger to save themselves.

Time to show the rest of the Galaxy what Humans can do.


	3. Chapter 3, Feros

**3, Feros**

\- We've touched down on Feros. The colony here is down to a fraction of it's former numbers, constantly harassed by Geth attack, they exhibit strained and even odd behaviour. No one can tell me why the Geth are interested in the planet.

We've driven off the Geth attacking this outpost of the main colony, now we're off to the main complex. Maybe the Geth forces there will be kind enough to inform us of their intentions.

\- The colony is secure, the Geth there destroyed, the remaining inhabitants safe and free from the Thorian. Apparently, Saren had come to Feros to negotiate with this Thorian, an intelligent plant being with insidious mind-control abilities and a lifespan stretching back tens of thousands of years, even back to the days of the Protheans. This unique and dangerous creature sat and observed the rise and fall of their civilization, gaining extensive knowledge of the Protheans, right down to their very thought patterns. It was this knowledge, the "Cipher," that Saren sought in order to interpret and understand the visions in the Beacon, giving the plant in return one of Benezia's handmaidens, an Asari named Shiala.

When he had gotten what he wanted, Saren left a detachment of Geth with orders to destroy the plant so no one else could attain its knowledge. The plant, which had already dominated the colonists nearest its neural center, used them, living and dead, as defence, first against the Geth soldiers, then against us. We only saw the corpses animate upon returning from defeating the main Geth hub in the colony. The colonists went berserk and fired on us. Had it not been for gas grenades provided by other surviving colonists hiding isolated and uninfected, I would have had no choice but to murder human civilians.

Despite precautions, I regret to report that one of the colonists died by my hand; a bullet intended for one of the many animated corpses instead struck the Salarian merchant, the only alien amongst the colonists. I know I should no more regret the death of one sentient being over another, but killing one of a kind out of many others makes the loss all the more sharp.

"First Human Spectre responds to distress call, saves Humans, kills only alien." The media is going to love this.

Apart from the Salarian, and the colonists leader who killed turned his gun upon himself rather than us, all infected with the spores of the now dead Thorian are alive, and once again free to think their own thoughts.

We also managed to save the Asari handmaiden held by the plant. Shiala had been the thrall medium between the plant and Saren, and once freed imparted to me the Cipher willingly. She says that the effects will take time, but eventually I should come to understand more fully what it is the Visions say. Honestly, these confused and blurred glimpses of horror are not something I want to see more clearly.

Shiala holds no loyalty to Saren. She tells me that Benezia had joined Saren some time ago upon sensing danger in him, hoping to guide him down a gentler path. Instead, she and all of her entourage became his thralls. His ship, called Sovereign, has profound impact upon those near it, bending them to Saren's will. The process takes time, days or weeks, but in the end is absolute. Even an Asari Matriarch cannot retain freewill. It is unknown if the process wears off given distance and time, or if Shiala regained her right mind because the Thorian had overridden the effects of Sovereign.

Asari Matriarchs are among the wisest and most powerful beings in the Galaxy. This power Saren has to bend even such a one as they to his will is a truly alarming thing to comprehend.

Can this possibly be a coincidence? Saren possess a ship with mind-controlling abilities and seeks out a plant that can do the same? What other undisclosed connections do these two have in common? Could this mysterious and powerful ship Saren possesses be as old as the Thorian, dating back to the Prothean era, perhaps even being a Prothean or Reaper vessel? Shiala says she has no idea who built the ship or how Saren came by it. Whatever its origin, this dreadnought is not Geth. Its make matches the design of no known species. Its weapons are irresistible, its defences nigh impenetrable. Clearly taking it on in a straight-up fight would be suicide. Any successful attempt against it would have to be covert. Given the information Shiala has provided, it seems reasonable to assume that a boarding party could raid the vessel without risking immediate domination.

The company that funded the Feros colony, ExoGeni, has much to answer for. They'd known full well that the Thorian was dominating the colonists, and had treated the whole matter as a science experiment. I make it clear in no uncertain terms in my report to Alliance Command that a thorough investigation and prosecution of the responsible parties is strongly recommended.

Despite her traumatizing experience, Shiala is surprisingly calm and rational, even serene. She has chosen to remain with the recovering colonists. I wish I could do more for them, but I must away. Free from the plant being, they have declined evacuation, instead seeking to live their lives on Feros as best they can.

We've found several threads linked to the Feros incident. A shipment of human rations to an uncharted world, and sale of samples from Feros to a group referred to as Cerberus. I don't have time to track down these leads, but hopefully my superiors can find someone else to investigate. Most ominous of all, we managed to salvage some intel from the Geth. It appears they may be establishing a foothold in the Armstrong Cluster. This information goes directly to Alliance High Command and the Citadel Council.


	4. Chapter 4, Moon Ghost

**4 Moon Ghost**

\- Our mission to find Saren and stop him from using the Conduit remains our primary goal, but I have other duties as well. I've received a priority message from Admiral Hackett. The central VI on Luna Base has gone rogue; seventeen marines were killed by automated defences before they evacuated. Fortunately the station is on a closed network, so the VI can't spread, but that also means it's immune to remote shut down. Hackett could of course order the station bombed, but has prudently decided to instead send in a team to shut it down from the inside. That's where I come in. Clearly Hackett could have ordered in a different team, and is taking opportunity to touch base and confirm the loyalty of the first Human Spectre. I approve whole-heartedly. Setting course for Luna.

\- We've shut down the VI.

Technically it was a mission not much unlike another. Land, break through the security, clear out automated defences, and shut down the servers inside. But despite the heavy defences mobilized against us, we only faced one enemy; the silent program we'd been sent to destroy. The desolate and barren moon was completely devoid of life but for my team and the hostile intelligence that awaited us in the bunkers below the surface. As we shut down the last server, it broadcast a signal before losing power, a series of zeros and ones, which translated spell one word: "help."

The mission is over, but I can't set this conundrum to rest. It seems the VI on Luna had achieved at least rudimentary independence and awareness, enough to react defensively when it thought it was under attack from the training exercises, and enough to call for aid when all other options were exhausted, even though it had no reason to believe anyone could hear its plea, or hearing would be inclined to heed. Is it possible the VI was not merely an intelligence, but a person? Was there actually a sovereign self with its own perspective, watching helplessly as the team of avenging marines carved through its futile defences? What if it was not a simple malfunction and cold self-preservation that caused the intelligence to kill those seventeen soldiers, but genuine fear?

How self-aware are the Geth? Are they more than just super-smart killing machines? Is it possible they're actual persons, not just a sophisticated program with a built-in survival instinct?

These are troubling questions, a mystery whose answer I cannot riddle out with the information at hand. Until further relevant intelligence is obtained, I have no choice but to shelve it indefinitely. The whole matter is unsettling, to say the least. I don't like leaving the matter undecided. It's like deliberately turning my back on an armed hostile.

Ashley Williams has raised the question of non-Alliance personnel being allowed free access to the ship. I'd already asked Alliance High Command what my orders were on the subject when we first left the Citadel. I was told that all other considerations are secondary to diplomatic principle. As the first Human Spectre, my first priority is to look good for interspecies relations. Security considerations are left to my discretion. Apparently, discretion is taking a backseat to diplomacy, and the security of Normandy's secrets takes second place to being seen as open and cooperative.

I disapprove on principle, but in this specific instance I do not personally think the three individuals in question pose a security risk. Tali is Quarian, and Quarians have not exchanged hostilities with anyone other than pirates since their war with the Geth. Theoretically, Tali could of course sell secrets from the Normandy, but I sincerely doubt her the type of person to be so underhanded. Garrus is a Turian, infuriated by worthless rules but eminently principled. He could reveal no secrets to his people that they do not already know, and would likely pull his fangs out before selling secrets to a third party. Wrex is a Krogan, a mercenary, and likely wouldn't understand the specifics of the Normandy's systems if I had Engineer Adams spell it out for him. Moreover, all transmissions from the Normandy are screened by ship systems, and the datacores of all memory storage devices brought on board are monitored. As matters stand, I do not think allowing these three individuals aboard the Normandy constitute a serious threat to security. Nevertheless, I applaud Williams stepping forward and bringing the matter to discussion.

Ashley Williams is a remarkable woman. Even aside from her service record and what I saw of her on Eden Prime, there's something about her: the way she stands, the she walks, in everything she does, that speaks of a discipline beyond the requirements of the service. There is something about her of the uncompromising idealist, willing to do anything that her conscience demands of her. Her strong impatience for anyone who fails to do the same is tempered with the fiercest empathy for innocents I've ever seen. I've learned something of why she drives herself so hard. Her grandfather was General Williams, the infamous commander of the Alliance forces at the disaster of Shanxi. Detachments dispersed, constant bombardment, and communications severed, the unfortunate general became the first and only human officer to surrender to Alien forces. The Williams family has been living under what Ashley describes as "the Williams curse" ever since. Ashley's father never made rank above Serviceman Third Class. He told Ashley "a Williams has to be better than the best, if only to avoid suspicion." His daughter achieving the rank of Gunnery Chief may seem only due justice, if that, given her service record and technical scores, but it was not easily won.

Garrus Vakarian has asked a favour. He's thinks he's tracked down the ship of a black-market organ dealer of atrocious method who evaded him in the past. Apparently, he's had no luck convincing his superiors in C-Sec to confirm his suspicions and arrest the suspect. I've promised him that if our course takes us in that direction, we'll make a detour. If Saren were not actively pursuing who knows what plot as I record this, I'd give the order to make the diversion immediately.

\- I've located both Kahoku's missing team and Gavin's missing brother. Both parties are dead. The civilian freighter fell prey to pirates. The missing marines had been killed by a Thresher Maw lurking in wait next to a distress beacon. The Thresher Maw is now dead, but searching the distress beacon and the surrounding area revealed little. Something doesn't add up here. I suspect some foul play is afoot.

Alliance High Command has analysed the Geth intel, and mapped out the locations of four Geth outposts, located in the Gagarin, Tereshkova, Hong, and Vamshi systems. Moving to engage.

\- After long and tedious searching and fighting, the newly formed Geth outposts have been found and eliminated. They were being coordinated from a central base in the Grissom system not revealed in the initial intelligence. When the last Geth soldier fell, the base transmitted a signal back towards the Perseus Veil. It wasn't a message, not exactly; it was footage of a Quarian singing. Odd, to say the least.

It is unclear if these five bases were merely intended to be surveillance stations, or if they were to be used to launch an invasion. Neither one is going to happen now. The bases and the Geth units manning them are now rubble, and regular Alliance patrols in that sector will alert us should they again attempt to establish a foothold.

In the last base we found a veritable treasure trove of intel, data on the Geth that may reveal how they've evolved since driving out the Quarians. Multiple Alliance Scientists assigned to decrypting the information have personally thanked me for providing them with the data. Tali will be taking a copy of the information back with her when she returns to her people. It may take years to decipher all of it, but when that does happen, I shall be _most_ interested to read the results.

I am now faced with a decision. Do I investigate the rumours of Geth activity on Noveria, or do I track down Dr. Liara T'Soni?

Whatever the Geth are doing on Noveria, it is almost certainly my solidest thread to Saren. On the other hand, Dr. T'Soni is Benezia's daughter as well as an expert on the Protheans. She may be our swiftest lead to Saren, or may have nothing whatever to do with him. Even if she has been thus far completely isolated from her mother's activities, and has no information on Saren, she might know something else pertinent to this investigation.

Given her location somewhere in the Artemis Tau Star Cluster, Navigator Pressly has narrowed down the search for the Asari doctor considerably. Considering her interests, she can most likely be found on the planet Therum in the Knossos system. The planet has a largely-intact Prothean ruin.

I'm ordering the Normandy to Therum. I may be off on a wild goose chase and wasting valuable time, but I have a feeling I'm not.


	5. Chapter 5, Dr T'Soni

**5 Therum**

\- Navigator Pressly is to be commended. Dr. T'Soni was indeed on Therum, and is now aboard the Normandy; as a guest, not a prisoner. She knows nothing about what her mother is doing with Saren, and disavows any loyalty to her in this matter.

We weren't the only ones looking for her; an entire battalion of Geth troops, commanded by a Krogan Battlemaster, was combing the ruins of that searing and barren lump of red rock, trying to find the lone Asari hidden somewhere therein.

One cannot envisage a more unlikely place to find so lovely a creature. Imagine sifting through the baking sands of the sahara, far from any site of habitation by even the most foolhardy, and finding below the surface of dirt and danger a solid gem, a luminous blue sapphire of brilliant quality and exquisite design, unattended and unknown in the desolate and dismal surroundings that concealed it.

Liara T'Soni has apparently spent much of the past fifty years alone in the field, exploring dig sites and archaeological ruins, anything she can find relating to the Protheans. She says that her findings across the decades lead her to believe that the Protheans were suddenly wiped from the face of the Galaxy at the apex of their civilization, and moreover, were not the first. She suspects, though she cannot yet prove it, that a cycle of extinction, sudden and violent, has pervaded the Galaxy for uncounted eons, the Protheans merely being the most recent civilization to disappear. She claims that, contrary to popular belief, though the Protheans were the very pinnacle of culture and power, their greatest works, the Citadel and the Mass Relays, were built upon the works of those that preceded them.

If what she says of this proposed cycle is indeed true, the motivations of the Reapers become more interesting. Could it be a simple case of massive ego? What if the Reapers are the last remnant of some forgotten civilization's most powerful machines, AIs of immense power with a juvenile need to squash something just strong enough to bite?

Liara has also viewed the Visions stored in my mind by the Beacon, but can tell us little that we do not already know of them. She says that the Visions do indeed tell of the destruction of the Protheans by the Reapers, and that the Conduit is somehow connected, but no more. She says that the Visions are incomplete, there are gaps where information is missing, likely as a consequence of the Beacon having been damaged. If we can find the rest of the message, we'll know more.

Great. All we have to do is find another, intact, Prothean Beacon. Perhaps I'll consult the Normandy requisitions officer.

Liara is a most singular girl. Despite being over one hundred years old, she is but young in the estimation of her kind, and to outward appearance resembles a human girl on the cusp of womanhood. She has been in the field almost constantly for the past fifty years, with little or no contact with the outside world, even her mother. She has a manner of gentle grace and calm sweetness the like of which I've not seen since Rose. To have survived for any length of time without even token support and accompaniment in her constant digging through hostile and dangerous environments, she must be made of sterner stuff than she looks. One would hardly expect such a tender and soft-spoken girl to have filled the role of rugged and solitary adventurer. Indeed, despite her delicacy, her calm and assured demeanour holds a subtle hint of hidden strength. Strangely, I do not find myself surprised that this young maiden has been exploring dangerous and far-flung regions unattended.

As for the detachment Saren sent to seize T'Soni, some were killed by my team as we advanced, the rest were consumed in molten sulphur as we left the planet. The fighting below the surface, gunfire, explosions, even mining equipment, tipped the delicate balance of seismic stability there, and we fled the ruin with T'Soni one step ahead of a collapse into red ruin and crushing death.

This Krogan Warlord was not the first Krogan we've seen among Saren's Geth. We saw a few such individuals before with his troops on Feros. It's no very great surprise that Saren should have begun hiring Krogan mercenaries, but it does prompt the question: what resources and allies does Saren have beyond the Geth? What hidden accomplices might he have still undetected in the galactic community? How many Krogan has he recruited? With his resources, known and suspected, it is not unlikely he may have a small army of the brutes, hitherto unrevealed in full strength. Krogan infantry have not deployed in large numbers since the Krogan Rebellions. Such an event is, I think, not something anyone wants to see.

Unless I am very much mistaken, Lieutenant Alenko has turned an admiring eye upon Liara. The two of them seem ideally matched in character and temperament. Should approval turn to affection, and should his sentiments be reciprocated, I cannot imagine a more perfect couple.

Garrus has separately confided in me certain doubts about Saren and our mission to apprehend him, suggesting the possibility that there is more shady politics involved than is readily apparent, even going so far as to recommend that Saren be shot on sight rather than risk his escape, or even aquital.

It will depend on the situation. If he cannot be taken alive, then so be it. The Galaxy will be safer without him. But, if feasible, we would do far better to take him prisoner. Despite the risks in letting him live, he's too valuable a source of intel to determine his death prematurely.

\- We have a priority message from the Citadel Council. Apparently, I did them injustice. We are not alone in our search for Saren. A Salarian Infiltration Regiment they sent into the Traverse has sent back a message, so badly garbled they could discern no information beyond source and frequency. The transmission was on a channel reserved for mission-critical data. Whatever the Infiltrators were trying to say, we only know it was important. This sounds more critical than rumours of Geth activity on Noveria. The Normandy is currently en rout at full speed to investigate.

\- Change of course. We have an imminent emergency. An asteroid being taken to Tera Nova for mining is off course, accelerating at full speed for the planet. The Normandy is the only ship that can get there in time. Virmire will have to wait.


	6. Chapter 6, Virmire

**6 Virmire**

\- The rocket stations established on Asteroid X57 have been commandeered by unknown parties, status of the civilian engineers undetermined. The Normandy could simply destroy the rockets, but if the engineers are still alive, we would be responsible for their deaths. I'll deploy on foot with Williams and Alenko to shut down the rockets manually, find out what's going on, and save the engineers if possible.

\- Mission successful. Asteroid X57 is back on course to a stable orbit. Most of the civilian engineers are still alive. They were being held hostage by Batarian pirates who thought the Asteroid perfect opportunity to do major damage to humans. Saving the hostages required allowing the Batarian leader, Balak, to escape. He's now on the Alliance's priority target list. It's only a matter of time before we find him again. Hopefully that occurs before another such nearly disastrous attempt. He's escaped justice once. I intend to see he does not do so again.

With this emergency resolved, we are free to head for Virmire. We still have no solid intel of the situation there. I've requested the Council mobilize forces for deployment, but they remain insistent on only sending the Normandy. Can't risk provoking the Terminus Systems to war, etc etc. Let's hope we won't need reinforcements.

\- Virmire is in sight. Heavy AA fire emanating from a fortified facility on the planet. We also have a fix on the Salarian encampment nearby. We'll drop in the Mako and clear enough of the AA guns in the vicinity of the encampment for the Normandy to land.

\- The Salarian Captain, Kirrahe, tells me the facility is Saren's base of operations, a research centre. It appears Saren is on the verge of formulating a cure for the Genophage. With such a bargaining tool, Saren essentially guarantees the allegiance of all Krogan, and given the cure, the Krogan will become populous enough to conquer the entire galaxy.

Kirrahe tells me his transmission asked for an army; his forces are down to half strength, and so long as the AA guns remain in place, the only aid the Normandy can offer them is the away team. Nonetheless, Kirrahe has a plan to destroy the base.

His ship's power core has already been retrofitted into a twenty-kiloton ordinance. The base, however, is so heavily fortified the bomb will have to be placed inside it to guarantee destruction. Kirrahe will break his men into three teams and attack one side of the base while my team infiltrates the other side. We'll disable the AA guns on foot, the Normandy will land the bomb, we'll put in place, and evacuate. We won't be able to leave the bomb unattended for long. Anyone not at the rendezvous point on time will be left behind. There is a very good chance non of us will survive this mission. But so long as that bomb gets set off, the mission will be a success.

I'm sending a transmission to the Council reporting the situation on Virmire and what little we know about Saren's plans. If all else fails, if Saren escapes and we do not survive, someone else can pick up where we left off.

Wrex is conflicted, naturally. I've managed to convince him that allegiance to Saren will in the end be nothing other than slavery. I've promised him that, if possible, we'll recover Saren's research data before we blow up the base.

Kirrahe needs one of my officers to coordinate the teams, someone who knows Alliance communication protocols. Kaidan will be needed to arm and set the bomb. Williams will accompany the Salarians.

Despite the impending battle, it is peaceful here. The waves break upon this alien shore with the same serene cycle of ebb and flow as any beach on Earth. Strange birds whose names perhaps no human knows call to each other over the lulling song of the breakers. Three-legged craps muddle resolutely about in the shallows upon business of their own, blurbling and mumbling, heedless of the battle brewing above their heads like the distant phalanx of thunderclouds that begin to gather menacingly on the horizon.

The Salarians are moving. It's time to go.

\- The base is destoryed, Saren escaped, Kaidan dead, and what's left of the Salarians on board the Normandy. Kaidan's death is on me. When the bomb was in position, the rendezvous sight was overrun by Geth reinforcements. It was a choice of either picking up Kaidan at the bomb or Williams with the last Salarian assault team pinned down on the AA tower. With no time to evacuate both parties, I made the only choice I could, and saved the greater number of lives.

A nagging voice in my mind tells me that I made the choice I did, not to save the greatest number of lives, but to save Williams. She crosses my mind all the time. I keep forgetting that she's a soldier like me, and I her superior officer. For the first time since I enlisted, I find myself wishing I were not a soldier in the Alliance Military. But I have more urgent matters to attend to. I can sort out personal issues once this Reaper situation is resolved.

The Reapers are perhaps even more of a threat than we realized. While in Saren's base, we found another Beacon. It is unknown whether Saren found it already on Virmire or brought it there for more thorough study. As Liara had predicted, touching the Beacon filled the gaps in the Visions. The Visions were a distress signal and a warning of the at the time ensuing Reaper invasion; a warning come too late, it would seem. Through glimpses of images in the Visions, Liara recognized the planet Ilos as being of prominent importance, almost certainly the location of the Conduit. We still don't know what the conduit is, and we cannot reach Ilos without access to the Mu Relay, which Liara says was blown by supernova into a nebula thousands of years ago. It could take decades of searching to find the Relay. We can only hope Saren remains as ignorant of its location as we.

And we discovered something else on Virmire. Sovereign, Saren's ship, is not a vessel of Reaper design, but is in fact itself a Reaper. Where it has been lurking for thousands of years we can only guess, and why he has chosen now to take action can only be surmised. He claims, for we spoke to him through Saren's office terminal, to be a "life form beyond our comprehension," "transcending our very understanding." He says the numbers of his kind will "darken the skies of every world," that "organics exist because his kind allow it," that we will end "because they demand it."

Despite the very real threat Sovereign poses as one sole creature, let alone what an invasion of more of his kind could do, I detect unwarranted hubris in his speech. He claimed to be the "pinnacle of evolution," and almost immediately after said his kind had no beginning or end, "eternal." This super-intelligent, ultra-powerful machine, this sentient dreadnought of incredible age and awesome power, is exhibiting traits of arrogance and self-contradicting blather. Whatever their origins, whoever made them, whatever the reasons for why they establish this cycle of extinction, they are clearly not without limit, not purely logical. They're flawed, and flaws can be exploited.

Until further information sheds more light on the subject, given that the Reapers left alone the primitive Asari, Human, Turian, and other races when they exterminated the Protheans fifty thousand years ago, and the monstrous ego issues Sovereign exhibits, it seems most likely that the Reapers simply wait for organic civilizations to reach a point of technological maturity where they can put up at least a token challenge, then the Reapers squash them and leave, waiting for the next crop of organics to grow, replenishing and increasing their strength from the harvested species.

I have of course reported everything to the Council, but they insist that Saren is deluding me, that the Reapers do not exist, that there is nothing to worry about.

We don't know where Sovereign and Saren have gone, or what their next step is. We have one more lead, the rumours of Geth activity on Noveria. But first to the Citadel, to drop off Captain Kirrahe and his men.

For centuries, humanity has prided itself on its supremacy, believing itself to have shaken off the primitive superstitions that haunted our collective subconscious for untold millennia; monsters, ghosts, and demons, beings of malignance and power beyond our mortal ken. For ages these hostile creatures lurked in the shadows of our cultural imagination, slowly fading from memory as humanity reached for the stars.

Then we found the Relays, and all pretensions of invulnerability vanished in an instant. What would we find, we asked ourselves, if we opened that door? Phantoms we thought we'd forgotten grew suddenly real again in our minds, a thousand mists hiding as many horrors…

But our fears once again faded as we met what lay beyond the Relay. The Turians, the dominant military force in the Galaxy, the martial spacefareing species strength we tested in battle. They were an enemy we could match, even surpass.

Now we meet a Reaper, and it seems that our darkest dreams have come true. A host of beings, any one of which is more than a match for any vessel conceived of, emerge from the dark recesses of the distant and unsounded past, bringing with them all of the suppressed nightmares we'd learned to scoff at. These monsters destroyed not only the Protheans, but an uncounted number of races that preceded them; civilization after civilization, culture after culture, all have fallen before the Reapers. And we're next.

The Reapers have yet to meet their match. It's high time this game of theirs was ended.


	7. Chapter 7, Noveria

**7 Noveria**

\- I've just received an encrypted transmission from Admiral Kahoku. He's done some digging, and tells me that the party responsible for luring his team into the Thresher Maw ambush was a top secret Alliance black ops division codenamed "Cerberus." They dropped off the grid a few months ago, severed all ties and disappeared. Kahoku has managed to narrow down the likely locations for one of their bases in the Voyager Cluster. He says their agents are after him.

This sounds bad. I've got a lot of issues that demand my attention, a long list of arrests, investigations, and strikes that need carried out. Once I've completed my mission to stop Sovereign and save the galaxy, I'll have much unaddressed work to attend.

\- We've arrived at Noveria. No readily discernible emergency ensuing. There are no Geth in obvious presence, only an unusually heavy corporate security force and cantankerous bureaucrats who resent the intrusion of a law-enforcement officer. I have no doubt, given time and leisure, I could easily find enough corruption to expose to fill my attention almost indefinitely.

Despite the apparent absence of Geth, it seems we have good reason to be here. Benezia, Saren's second-in-command, Liara's mother, is here. She left the spaceport for the research labs on Peak 15 a few days ago. No one can tell me what sort of research is being conducted there. All we know at this point is that Benezia brought with her an escort of Asari commandos and a large store of cargo, only identified as "large, heavy, and sealed."

This will almost certainly get messy. Lady Benezia is highly likely to be Indoctrinated and almost certainly immune to negotiation. Nevertheless, Liara has asked to accompany me in the hope of resolving matters peacefully. Despite the risks, Liara's presence does indeed constitute our best hope for diplomacy, and whatever happens, she deserves to be present.

There is chill here beyond the honest cold of the mountains, strong enough to cut through even the environmental seal of our suits. The superficially pleasant interior of the facilities here lies clutched in an icy grip of dull suspense. I feel that, if the inhabitants of this place could detect it, they might not remain here long. Something deadly is afoot.

\- Benezia is dead. She was indeed Indoctrinated beyond recovery, but had locked away a portion of her mind, briefly regaining her sanity for a moment when she could do Saren most injury. She gave us what it was she came to Noveria for, what she had just transmitted to Saren: the location of the Mu Relay. It had been in the possession of a most unexpected individual; a Rachni queen.

That is what had been going on on Noveria. Saren had found a derelict ship lost in space from the time of the Rachni wars. In it was a single egg. They'd brought it here to clone and mass produce into a new Rachni army. But the egg was a queen, and when they separated her offspring from her to grow and train, they grew unstable and berserk, eventually breaking free from containment and running rampant through the research base.

Everyone has heard the stories of the Rachni wars, the insectile monsters that nearly overwhelmed the galaxy two thousand years ago, defeated only by the arrival of the all but invincible Krogan. These Rachni we encountered, fighting with the mindless savagery of senseless beasts, proved very hard to kill. They'd slaughtered all but a few scientists and security personnel holed up in one of the labs.

Upon our arrival we destroyed the Rachni soldiers, only to be set upon by Benezia's cohorts, the station's security officers and the Asari commandos. I had no choice but to order my team return fire. I regret deeply that so many died by my hand. The commandos were supported by Geth troops, clearly smuggled in those heave cargo crates. So much for all that heavy security.

When cornered, an initially defiant and intractable Benezia quite suddenly gave way to a different tone; her own self, locked away in the inner recesses of her mind, for one brief moment broke out. Benezia's sanity resurfaced long enough to give us the coordinates for the Relay, and say goodbye to her daughter.

I was about to destroy the Rachni queen, when she spoke through the body of a dead Asari commando. She asked for mercy. Politely. When questioned, she could tell me nothing of the Rachni wars, only of shadows of sorrow passed on by her mother, and of her own sorrow for her own children, the Rachni that I had just destroyed. She said that they had been beyond saving, that she herself would have destroyed them. I asked her what she would do if spared, if she and her kind would attack other races again. She said she would find a hidden place, a planet somewhere far away and unknown to raise her children in peace and isolation, never to attack other races without provocation.

I agreed to release her. She left with a promise to teach her children of my mercy, to return with aid when my need arose.

Both during and after this strange discourse I asked myself; was I making this decision of my own free will, or was my mind affected and bent to the Rachni's desires? I can with assurance answer a definite no. The Rachni did indeed speak telepathically through the body of the Asari, but my own mind remained clear. Through contact with Prothean Beacons and mind-melding with Shiala and Liara, I have over the last few weeks garnered some experience in knowing when something else is in my mind, of what thoughts belong to me and which to another. It was by my own judgement and nothing else that I chose to spare the Rachni Queen, an individual who, so far as I know, has harmed no one, speaks of standards of beauty, justice, and mercy, and is the sole and last representative of her species. When mercy was humbly asked, I could not in good conscience refuse.

We now have everything we need to find the Conduit. But so does Saren. He will be certainly heading towards Ilos with everything he has to secure the Conduit immediately. We could pursue with the Normandy, but too much could go wrong. One frigate against a fleet of Geth cruisers is slim chance to say the least. The investigative part of this mission is over. What we need now is firepower.

Sending mission report back the Citadel with a request for reinforcements. Time is of the essence. As the old saying goes, get there the fastest with the mostest.

Poor Liara. She unflinchingly stood her ground against the onslaught of monsters and mayhem, bullets and biotics, firing upon not only her own kind but even her own mother. I wish I had left her aboard the Normandy, but what then? I would now be trying to tell her I had killed her mother. Instead she helped me. In the last, as Benezia lay dying, Liara pleaded with her to stay, but Benezia refused aid, and died rather than again succumb to Sovereign's terrible will.

We are facing the threat of Destruction of this entire galaxy if Saren finds the Conduit and brings back the Reapers, and here I am distracted by the sorrow and pain of one individual. That's what's at stake here, this is what will happen to everyone on every world if Saren isn't stopped. We can't fail.

Message from the Council. They're amassing fleets and I have orders to return immediately. Finally the action we need. Let's rendezvous and take Sovereign down!


	8. Chapter 8, Endgame

**8 End Game**

\- A pox on the fickle and willfully blind fools! The Council have assembled their fleets, not to secure Ilos, but to sit and await the Geth fleet at the Citadel. They dismiss Benzia's information, dismiss Saren's claims, dismiss the Virmire files, dismiss the Conduit, dismiss the Reapers, and dismiss any warnings I can provide. Moreover, citing the possibility of provoking war in the Terminus Systems, they've forbidden even a stealth op to Ilos; the Normandy is in lockdown and I am forbidden to leave the station.

It's as though they are so afraid of the Reapers they will do anything to prevent me proving the realness of the threat, as though they believe allowing action to counter the danger will validate and fulfill its existence. Fools.

Options are limited. Negotiation with the Council is fruitless, leaving me no recourse but to play the renegade. The clock is ticking, and Saren gets closer to Ilos every moment we wait. So close to his final goal he'll be taking no chances, and will almost certainly have the entire Geth Fleet in tow.

There's only one ship fast enough to get there in time, one ship stealthy enough to slip in without catching every shell from every gun on every ship in the Geth fleet, and that ship is the Normandy, locked and secured in docking.

We have two options. Either we disable the lockdown clamps manually, or we break in to C-Sec Control and disengage the lockdown remotely. Both options pose significant difficulties. Tampering with the clamps will alert C-Sec instantly, and they have officers posted almost immediately on site. Disabling the clamps will take a few moments, and the likelihood of a shoot-out before the ship can be freed is high. Brassing out an entry into C-Sec Control would prove eminently easy for a Spectre, but as the lockdown was ordered by a Councilor, revoking the order will result in immediate arrest.

Update. Captain Anderson wants to meet on the Citadel. I don't know what help he can offer us, but the Captain never does anything without reason. Whatever it is he has in mind, it's bound to be something better than a commiseration-and-sympathy-themed pity party while we wait the for the sky to fall on our heads.

\- We're out! I'd been mistaken. It had been hadn't been the Council that gave the order to lock down the Normandy; it was that skunk Udina. Captain Anderson has broken into Udina's office and lifted the lockdown.

Even with Adams pushing the swift and powerful Normandy beyond recommended parameters, it will take a several hours to reach Ilos. Every moment is precious, and the Normandy hurtles through the stars, outstripping their rays as though even she knows how narrow is our margin, the thinness the knife edge of time we walk, the stakes should we fail, and has channelled the will of every grim and desperate member of her crew into a furious dash to Ilos.

For the crew is indeed aware. I considered withholding from them the truth of the matter, letting them believe that this last step of our mission is officially sanctioned and above board, but no: I owe them honesty. Every man and woman aboard knows we have broken orders and stolen the Normandy; and despite being offered the choice to wash their hands and remain aboard the Citadel, they have instead unanimously agreed to stick to the mission, to see this through to the end, no matter what the cost. I am honoured by the trust they put in me even to the point of mutiny. Let the record show that I assume full responsibility for this action.

I can't afford to think about Captain Anderson right now. He might be imprisoned or even dead. He went above and beyond to give us this chance. We will not fail him.

I've told the squad to make sure that both they and their gear are ready. I'm going to get what sleep I can. The Citadel has hailed us several times. I'm not picking up the phone.

\- We've reached Ilos, and successfully eluded the Geth fleet in orbit. A large detachment of Geth troops have already landed in the ruins. Joker will have to pull off a drop under impossible conditions to get us in. No reason things should get easy now.

\- Mission complete. We did it. We've won. For now. Saren is dead and Sovereign destroyed. It took the combined firepower of the Citadel and Alliance fleets to bring him down.

The Reaper did indeed lead the Geth Armada against the Citadel, and tore through their defences like a bullet. Saren went in through a different way; the Conduit, a Prothean-made Relay built secretly on Ilos linking directly into the heart of the Citadel. Saren and an army of Geth stormed the Citadel from the inside and commandeered the Station, handing control over to Sovereign.

But we were hard on his heels. A few moments later, and Sovereign would have opened the Citadel to Dark Space, and The Reapers, hundreds of them, maybe thousands, would have poured through. We brought with us a gift from Vigil, a failing Prothean VI hidden in the crumbling Prothean ruins on Ilos. While we engaged Saren, Vigil entered the station's systems, severing Saren's control and turning the Citadel from our damnation into our salvation. Instead of Reapers from the edge of the Galaxy, the Relays opened to the awaiting Alliance Fleet. Human vessels swept in, saving the floundering and sundered Turian and Asari defences. The assailants driven off and the survivors rallied, all ships turned and unleashed hell upon Sovereign. More ships died in battle against that one Reaper than did against the entire Geth Fleet. Thank God we made it in time.

Anderson not only eluded C-Sec and survived the Geth attack, he saved Udina's life as well. The irate ambassador nurses a bruised jaw, courtesy of the Captain's intrusion to lift the lockdown.

In gratitude for Humanity's actions, the Council offered us full recognition as a Citadel species, with one of our own holding a place on the Council. For what it's worth, I've put forward my word on behalf of Captain Anderson.

The Normandy Crew and Command have been officially pardoned. I am glad, for there is much work to do. Cerberus and a dozen other lesser threats must be dealt with, and the greater threat, the Reapers, still remains. We've thwarted their immediate plans, but they will not accept defeat. One way or another, they're still coming. When they get here, we need to be ready. I intend to see that they receive a warm welcome.


	9. Chapter 9, AWOL

**9 AWOL**

\- I'm alive.

I've lost two years. By rights, I should have lost all of them. I died. Apparently. The Normandy was investigating the disappearance of three ships. We didn't find the source. It found us. An unidentified cruiser ambushed the Normandy, ignoring our stealth systems as though they didn't even exist. Devastating particle beam fire crippled the Normandy in seconds. With engines compromised, weapons disabled, and navigation destroyed, I gave the order to abandon ship.

I was the last on-board. An explosion, one of the last, sent me flying through the ruptured hull out into space. Seconds later, the enemy ship delivered the killing blow, and the Normandy was no more. That's when I noticed my airline was ruptured. Things blur out shortly afterwards.

I dimly recall waking to a sterile-looking room, an alarm beeping, some anxious words, and a sedative being administered.

It could have been moments or months afterwards that I awoke for a second time. This time I was alone, but a voice over the com was telling me get up and arm myself from a nearby locker. I found the pistol before I properly found my feet: standard-issue Predator; high-calibre, decent RPM, good accuracy. Explosions rocked the place and gunfire could be heard.

Mechs came to kill me. I moved by drilled instinct, my gun hand dropping mechs while my hazed and aching head tried to sort out what was happening, what had happened. I prowled through deserted halls and rooms marked with a strange insignia, thoughts and questions shooting cross my dim consciousness like bullets from the gun I was firing. Where was I? Shouldn't I be dead? Whose facility was this? Had anyone else survived the attack on the Normandy? Who was attacking this facility? Who had attacked the Normandy? Was it affiliated with Batarians? Reapers? How many more ships had been ambushed? Had the strange vessel been caught? Was it an individual threat or one of many? How long had I been out? Where was everyone?

Finally I found another Human, also exchanging fire with the mechs. Enemies in the immediate vicinity disposed of, he identified himself as Jacob Taylor, head of security. He said he knew no more than I about why the security mechs had gone rogue, only that it had to be an inside job.

He told me I'd been more or less, but progressively less, dead for two years. Apparently, I'd just been awakened prematurely. The voice of warning I'd heard over the radio had been Miranda Lawson, senior officer of the station and chief overseer of my revival, Project Lazarus.

The crew of the Normandy had not escaped without casualties. Navigator Pressly and twenty-odd servicemen had died; the rest of the crew, including the combat team, had been recovered by the Alliance. I had been declared killed in action. Jacob hesitated to tell me who he was working for, who had recovered and revived my lifeless body. Project Lazurus, he said, used cutting edge technology and incredible resources to secretly bring me back to life. When he eventually told me that the party responsible was Cerberus, I was not pleased.

Jacob Taylor seems a trustworthy man despite his affiliations. He put himself in jeopardy with both me and his superiors by telling me who he worked for. I'll reserve judgement of this individual; he may well believe his association worthy, but I have no such delusions about Cerberus. Cerberus had been a top secret Alliance black ops organization. They went rogue during my mission to stop Saren. When the Reaper had been dealt with and invasion averted, I'd turned my attention to Cerberus. They'd been conducting illegal biological research, lured marines into death traps, murdered an Alliance Admiral, and set themselves up as a militant shadow organization of highly suspect motives.

Jacob has promised to take me to his boss, The Illusive Man. That should prove to be a most interesting interview.

Jacob and I found only two other survivors on our way to the shuttles. The first was the station's chief medical specialist, Wilson. The second was Miranda, waiting at the shuttlebay. She shot Wilson on sight, telling me and an alarmed Jacob that Wilson had been responsible for the attack. It would explain certain oddities in Wilson's behaviour. Nevertheless, Miranda's snap judgement call with immediate lethal force upon an erstwhile friend in no way makes me feel safe around her. And not a hint of regret. Jacob asked her "What if you're wrong, Miranda?" To which she replied "I'm never wrong." I have little doubt, should Miranda deem it necessary, she'll put a bullet in the back of my head. If I had any inclinations to let my guard down around Jacob, Miranda will keep me alert.

\- So I've met the Head of Cerberus. Only one of him. The Illusive Man was too canny to meet me in person, instead communicating face-to-face via hologram. Smart man. Otherwise, I may have been inclined to lay hands upon his person.

The Illusive Man tells me that Humanity is under attack. The disappearance of the three ships, the attack on the Normandy, was just the beginning. Human colonies in the Terminus Systems have been disappearing, the citizens gone without a trace. The official explanation is that the disappearances are the work of slavers and pirates. Apparently the Alliance is devoting its attention to expanding its influence and control in Citadel Space, now that they have a seat on the Council, and have little time to spare for sporadic disappearances. But tens of thousands of Human colonists vanished without a trace should warrant more action.

I asked the Illusive Man why he spent the price of an army to resurrect one soldier. He says it's because of what I represent, defiance of the Reapers. Apparently he deems it absolutely essential that the symbol of Sovereign's defeat be seen alive and active.

I've agreed to investigate the most recent colony to suffer abduction, Freedom's Progress. When I've conducted my search we will speak again.

A fine fix this is. I've been gone two years. Officially, I'm dead. And I'm now connected to Cerberus, essentially a terrorist network. If I immediately report back to my superiors, as is my duty, then best case scenario I'll be a free man again in another two years. I don't have time for that. If there's a threat to Human colonies, especially if there's suspicion the Reapers are somehow connected, I have to move fast. If the Alliance is too caught up in politics to ensure the safety of frontier worlds, I have no choice but to intervene as best I can before I submit myself to all but guaranteed arrest and delay. For all of its principles and virtues, the Alliance is still a massive bureaucracy, with all the inertia that entails. If they aren't moving now, by the time they finally get their momentum underway, it may well be too late.

\- We scoured the colony. I've seen deserted habitations and locals before, but this was different. There were no signs of evacuation, no indications of violent withdrawal, every empty house looking as though the inhabitants had simply vanished, dropping everything at once and leaving without a trace.

Ghost town indeed. Every empty house, every deserted street, seemed to silently scream of terror. What in Creation could have happened here, I asked myself. No damage to be found anywhere; no blast holes, no bullet marks, not even traces of chemical weapons. This colony didn't have a proper garrison, but the civilians had been armed. There should have been signs of a fight.

Finally we found someone. But not colonists. Quarians. Tali-Zorah with a team looking for one of their pilgrims, still here somewhere. Working together we found him, hidden and trembling. Veetor was nearly hysterical, jabbering and muttering. Something had clearly frightened him out of his wits. It's unclear why he alone had been left behind. Perhaps, immediately making himself scarce, his environmental suit had masked his location from scanners. Or maybe the attackers had only been interested in finding and taking Humans, either not scanning for or simply ignoring an out-of-the-way hidden Quarian.

We did get some information out of him. He kept talking about Swarms, bugs that flooded the colony and froze everyone. Then Monsters. He kept jabbering about the Monsters, how they took the colonists away, of how they would be back for him.

However incoherent and frantic he may have been, Veetor had had the blessed presence of mind to scan and record the "Monsters." The footage was blurry, but the readings confirm that the "Monsters," human-sized bipeds, are what Jacob and Miranda call "Collectors."

Apparently Collectors are a race of aliens possessing advanced technology, appearing on the galactic stage only recently, while I was under. They have no official public relations, and appear so infrequently and in distant locations that most people don't believe they exist. Their standard MO is to collect specimens with mutations or genetic anomalies from slavers, paying exorbitant sums for seemingly useless captives, then they vanish whence they came, through the Omega 4 Relay.

The Omega 4 is a Primary Relay of unknown destination. No one has ever mapped its mate because no one other than Collectors has ever passed through it and returned. This suggest the Collectors possess unique knowledge of Relays, or at least this one in particular.

Of significant interest is the Collectors abrupt change of procedure; there is a great deal of difference between select purchasing of dozens of unfortunate souls from slavers, and whole-sale abduction of colonists by the tens of thousands. And only Human colonies. Their previous acquisitions were of all races, but only those individuals with abnormalities. Now it seems any Human will suit their needs, as many as possible, and all other races are forgotten. Why?

Either The Illusive Man is a very bad liar, or he simply doesn't care to be cautious at this time. He says the data from Veetor "confirms" the Collectors are responsible for the disappearances. He had told me before that we knew nothing. Why do I get the feeling Cerberus may have conducted business with them? If so, it seems the deal went sour. Is the Collectors new focus on exclusively targeting Humans a consequence of the estrangement, or the cause?

The Illusive Man also keeps hinting that the Collectors are working with the Reapers, but won't say why, only that "the patterns are there, buried in the data." He cites the Collectors apparent familiarity with Relays, and their possible motive in targeting humans as being revenge for the death of Sovereign. Possible, but that doesn't explain why they capture the Humans instead of simply destroying them.

I've made my decision. I am now doing what I would, and do, call myself mad to even consider. But I have no better option. I've agreed to work with Cerberus to stop the Collector threat. The Illusive Man has promised me a ship, and, to my surprise, has offered me a list of dossiers; soldiers, mercs, spies, and scientists for consideration and recruitment. I'd expected he'd insist upon providing me with a detachment of Cerberus soldiers, not offer me a head start on assembling an independent combat team. It seems he wants me out in the field with as much freedom as possible, more than he wants me under his command.

Of course, Jacob and Miranda, along with the crew of the ship, will all be Cerberus officers, and the ship itself will be sure to have failsafes to ensure control, if necessary. Given the circumstances, I'd expect to have something of the same sort installed in me. I've just had enough long-term surgical implants put in place, it would be the easiest thing in the world to put a control chip in my brain. I might very well think there probably was one, were it not for the fact that Miranda herself was complaining that The Illusive Man had forbidden her to do just that. She said he was afraid it might alter my personality, shed doubt upon my genuine identity, that me being known to be truly alive and not just an imposter superseded all other considerations. Moreover, I have carefully examined recent events, and every action and decision I've made holds up to logical consideration; thus far, I cannot detect in myself any slides of judgement in The Illusive Man's favour, even my decision to work with Cerberus holds water, however bitter. I have of course, at this time, no conclusive evidence either way about the presence or absence of a control implant of some sort. It could be a simple failsafe primed only to activate in emergency, in which case I'll have no evidence of its existence until such time as the emergency occurs.

I need allies, people I can trust not affiliated with Cerberus to protect me from myself should the worst occur. This prompts the question of why The Illusive Man would encourage me to find just such people. Then again, he could be confident enough in his own provisions, he feels safe in granting me an illusion of autonomy and safety.

Damned mess.


	10. Chapter 10, Omega

_[Apologies for the partial repetition; the opening of chapter 10 was accidentally included in the ending of chapter 9. This has been corrected. Enjoy!]_

* * *

 **10 Omega: The Thug, Professor, and Vigilante.**

\- Talk about too good to be true. The promised ship, SR2, turns out be nothing less than a duplicate Normandy, essentially the same vessel with a few tweaks and Cerberus markings. How on Earth did Cerberus manage to replicate the most advanced warship in the Alliance fleet? The must have left moles behind when they cut ties, or reinfiltrated since. Either way, it certainly doesn't speak well for Alliance security.

And that's not all. I've now met the Ship's pilot, none other than Joker. The silly fellow seems not the slightest bit worried about working with Cerberus. Even Dr. Chakwas is aboard, though she insists she is working for me, not Cerberus. Unlike Joker who joined because he was discharged and grounded after the destruction of the SR1, Chakwas deliberately quit and sought out position aboard the SR2 for the chance to aid me in the fight against the Collectors. I am of course, delighted to have them here, but as it stands, they run almost as good a chance as me of being compromised. I haven't said anything about it to them yet. Not on board the new Normandy.

The ship is the same, but different. Beyond the replacement of Alliance markings with Cerberus logos, the whole ship feels like a flying lab, a sterile science experiment. I miss the old Normandy, my mind free from doubts, more than I can say.

Another surprising revelation is the presence of an AI aboard the Normandy. Enhanced Defence Intelligence, or EDI, as the crew call her, is an experimental advancement in cyberwarfare. Essentially a super hacking and counter-hacking asset, she can in theory shut down or overload the systems of nearby ships, and simultaneously run advanced defence against such attacks on the Normandy. It remains to be seen just how effective such innovative and green tactics turn out. Cerberus has not been entirely foolhardy in creation of such a powerful and dangerous AI. Despite possessing self-awareness and free will, EDI is checked by software shackles. She cannot commandeer the Normandy, nor can she vacate her hardware on deck three. She also cannot divulge Cerberus secrets. I've tested that last one.

We're here to stop the Collectors. We'll need a team; fighters and at least one scientist, to study the Collectors and develop countermeasures to protect us from the devastating swarms they open their attacks with. Looking over the dossiers, and some brief research of my own, I've decided to recruit Mordin Solus, a Salarian scientist and ex-STG operative. He holds a reputation for both scientific brilliance and combat aptitude. He is currently operating a charitable clinic on the asteroid Omega.

Also on Omega is a most promising-sounding individual, a Turian vigilante called Archangel. The man has single-handedly waged a war on the ruthless criminal elements that dominate the region for some time, ambushing their thugs and sabotaging their operations to remarkable effect. It seems he's done considerable damage to the disparate factions, enough that they have stopped killing their each other and are now working together to trap and kill him. One idealist successfully carrying out a solo-war against multiple heavily armed and organized criminal groups sounds like the kind of deadly and principled man I could use.

Another, far less likeable, character on Omega is a merc named Zaeed Massani. I would have passed him up, but Cerberus has apparently already paid him to join the mission. I don't like his reputation of bloodthirsty and indiscriminate killing. But he is supposed to be the most sought-after bounty-hunter in the Galaxy, and I need that kind of skill to fight Collectors. Moreover, if I'm going to be taking along decent and principled people, a selfless doctor and a fearless vigilante, into what may very well be a suicide mission, I might as well take a violent creep. Better his gun follow my orders than someone else's.

\- I've spoken with the closest thing Omega has to a political head, an arrogant Asari crimelord named Aria T'Loak. She holds the balance of power against the other, smaller faction, and as far as crime bosses go, isn't all that bad. She provides about the only order and stability Omega has. But that doesn't change the fact that she's a pain in the proverbial neck.

It seems Dr. Solus is combating a plague that appeared on the massive Omega station two weeks ago. Aria has that district locked down to prevent the disease from spreading. Archangel, she tells me, is in imminent danger. He's trapped in his hideout with three major mercenary gangs laying siege; Blue Suns, Bloodpack, and Eclipse. They have him cornered, but are having trouble finishing the job. They've started hiring anyone with a gun as cannon fodder.

The professor can wait. It sounds like Archangel doesn't have much time. Aria has washed her hands of the matter. Short-sighted purple-skinned jackass. Archangel omitted her from his attacks, recognizing her representing the only stability on the station I presume, and here she is content to sit on her behind while he gets pinned down and killed. Even from a purely self-serving point of view, one would expect her to realise that Archangel's continued presence weakens her enemies. And should he be killed, having forced her enemies to unite against him, he has now created what would otherwise have been a most unlikely coalition that may turn and successfully defeat her.

I've already sent Massani back to the ship with beating to think about; I'd found him in the process of stomping an unfortunate Batarian's face in. When I intervened, the Batarian ran off before I could ascertain the extent of his injuries. A brute like Massani respects only brute strength. And by golly I'll see to it he behaves himself under my command.

We're going to infiltrate the Blue Sun's recruiting list. Once we're on sight, we can case the situation and determine how to extract Archangel.

\- I could leap and shout for joy. Garrus! That bloody great dear fool had nearly gotten himself killed. As it was, we barely got him out of there alive. It seems the name "Archangel" is what the locals started calling him when he began killing murderous thugs. He had acquired a team of various individuals who also wanted to fight back against the gangs; it seems they all died before we arrived.

In the ensuing fight we joined at Garrus's hideout, the three gangs laying siege launched everything they had at us. Now most of them are dead, and Garrus is recovering from an explosion. Had his armour not held up, or Chakwas not worked her magic promptly, the rumours of his death now spreading through Omega would be accurate.

Garrus is back on his feet, but the side of his face will stand testament to that battle for the rest of his life. Even with the advantages of modern medigel and cybernetics, he should still be abed for at least a week after what he went through. But no, the stubborn fellow is up and about, poking around the forward battery, and assures me he's ready for active duty whenever I need him. He never even considered not joining me, didn't even ask what the mission was or why I was working with Cerberus. He shouldn't trust me so easily. He doesn't even have any proof that I am actually me.

I got a message from a woman on Omega, the wife of one of Garrus's squad. She says Garrus blames himself for what happened to his men, and needs help seeing that it's not his fault. No wonder Garrus can't abide to be in bed with nothing to do, nothing to keep his thoughts from ceaselessly naming the men who died under his command. Far better to keep busy, reconfiguring the Normandy's weapons, charging prematurely back out into danger, anything but inactivity. I've had men die under my command. I've even had to order their deaths. But to have seen your entire squad get wiped out, tormented by the knowledge that had you done something different they might still be alive...

Garrus isn't the sort to throw in the towel, but his already reckless nature may have turned into a blatant disregard for his own life. I need him watching my back, but I think he needs me just as much.

\- We've helped Dr. Solus to cure the plague on Omega. He'd already formulated a cure, and only needed our aid to disperse it. Leaving his clinic in the hands of his assistant, the chipper Salarian professor was quite happy to embrace a new challenge. A chatterbox of a deductionist, Dr. Solus is instantly likeable. The sort of chap who provided medical treatment free of charge to the citizens of Omega, and single-handedly whupped the thugs who tried to extort protection money out of him. Cerberus isn't exactly a secret, nor are the Collectors, but Dr. Solus already knew nearly as much as we. He seems positively delighted with the prospect of pitting his scientific skill against the Collectors, and has buckled down with cheery industriousness to the task of developing a countermeasure to the Swarms from the data and samples we collected on Freedom's Progress.

Funny thing about the Omega Plague. Cross-species viable, airborne propagating, near perfect mortality rate, it affects every species exposed to it: Asari, Salarian, Turian, Batarian, even Krogan. The only species immune were Vorcha and Humans. As Vorcha are already immune to diseases and too primitive to have concocted a biological weapon, everyone on the station assumes the Plague to have been created by Humans. But the Vorcha we fought in our dispersal of the cure bragged about the Collectors making the strong. Dr. Solus also said he suspects the Collectors were responsible for the Plague, that the Vorcha on Omega were tasked with dispersing it to test its effects. Why Humans would be exempt from contamination is still a mystery.

\- Having completed our business in the Sahbarik System, we are now en route to the Citadel. Councillor Anderson has asked that I explain myself and my new affiliation in person, if I am indeed alive as rumoured. This is a significant risk. Going to the Citadel, reporting to Councillor Anderson, is everything short of officially surrendering to the Alliance. It is highly likely Anderson may arrest me, but it's a chance I have to take. He may not believe a word I say, but I owe it to him to explain my reappearance and actions.


	11. Chapter 11, Councilor Anderson

**11 The Citadel**

That went better than I could have possibly hoped for. Not only did Anderson lend me an open ear and let me go afterward, he even insisted the Council officially reinstate my Spectre status. The other Councillors complied on the condition that I maintain a low profile and don't stir things up.

Apparently, Sovereign has officially been declared a Geth Dreadnought, and the Reapers dismissed as a myth. The Council has exerted all their influence to quell as thoroughly as possible the rumours of Sovereign being only the first of many, and are afraid I'll raise hue and cry and upset their peaceful delusions of security. Fools. We thwarted the Reapers first attempt, but they will come eventually, and when they do, we need to be ready for them. Plugging our ears and singing a song of denial will not save us.

Anderson listened to every word I said with studious attention. I told him everything. How Cerberus revived me, of my meeting with The Illusive Man, my findings on Freedom's Progress, my plans to assemble an independent team to fight the Collectors, my doubts about my own freedom of thought, the recreation of the Normandy and suspicions of security leaks in the Alliance, and my intention to report back to Admiral Hackett as soon as the Collector threat had been dealt with. Anderson never said he disbelieved me, but neither did he commit to anything, divulged no classified information. I asked after Ashley before I could stop myself, but he declined to tell me anything, only that she is alive and well.

I cannot read my old Captain's thoughts, but I assume he is consciously and deliberately suspending judgement. He has no conclusive proof one way or another about my authenticity or wholeness of mind. He has apparently decided to watch and wait, to give me a chance to prove myself one way or the other. That's all I can ask, and more than I could have hoped for.

I can, at least, remove one gnawing doubt from my extensive list of cares and worries. I insisted, before I left, that C-Sec have me examined for suspicious implants. Despite my fears, suggesting the examination, even submitting to restraints, triggered no failsafe. The results confirm that I do have extensive implants to facilitate and augment my recovery, but, so far as the doctors can tell, neither I nor Garrus (who underwent emergency surgery in the Normandy) have any implants that could control our thoughts or actions, nor anything resembling a kill-switch. The Normandy is still suspect, and circumstance still shackles us to this course, but our own minds are clear and free. And if Cerberus didn't chain either Garrus or me, chances are Joker and Chakwas are also safe.

This weight being lifted means more than I can say. I now feel twice as strong, as though the whole galaxy couldn't stop me. Nearly giddy with relief, I'm now off for to assemble an army. The Collectors won't know what hit them.


	12. Chapter 12, Fighter, Mage, and Rogue

**12 Fighter, Mage, and Rogue**

\- I've recruited three more individuals, each of whom is easily worth a full team by themselves. A genetically-synthesized "perfect" Krogan, Grunt, brutal and deadly. A biotic of extraordinary power, Jack, rumoured to be the mightiest Human biotic alive, and a master thief of unparalleled ability, Kasumi Goto.

The Krogan we had sought out was not Grunt. The scientist who fabricated him, the Warlord Okeer, was one of the only Krogan scientists worthy of note in the galaxy. Furthermore, as one of the few Krogan Warlords to survive the Krogan rebellions, he possessed a millennium of combat experience. But most interesting of all, Cerberus caught wind of him dealing with the Collectors, presumably trading something for technology to help him create a cure for the Genophage. Beyond that, we knew only that he was conducting research at a Blue Suns salvage yard.

But we'd been wrong in our assumptions. Okeer didn't want to cure the Genopage, he instead sought to create the perfect Krogan, to "inflict upon the Genophage the greatest insult an enemy can suffer: to be ignored." He had bought technology from the Collectors, and he had paid them in Krogan. He grew thousands of Krogan in vats, selling some to the Collectors, but handing most of them over to the resident Blue Suns commander, Jedor, for use as shock troopers. Okeer didn't care a whit for the lives of thousands of his kind, no guilt at all for having handed them over to the Collectors, or that Jedor had been unable to control the Krogan given her, and so used them for her troops' target practice. The only thing Okeer cared about, what he sacrificed his own life for, was his final masterpiece, a single, perfect, Krogan.

We left the research base with no new intel on the Collectors, only the tank holding the Krogan specimen that Okeer had sacrificed thousands of lives, including his own, for. Such wanton waste. This Krogan, Grunt, could be superhuman and not justify the thoroughly amoral means to his making.

When I awoke Grunt from his tank I gave him promise of worthy enemies, and thus have won his temporary loyalty. He will fight for us, for now. Out of all that waste, at least a little benefit will be gained. Let this brutal and battle-hungry great beast of a Krogan vent his potent rage against the Collectors. I take grim pleasure anticipating the carnage he will inflict upon them.

Jack was being held in stasis aboard the independent prison ship Purgatory. Imagine my disgust to learn that Cerberus was buying her from the Purgatory's captain, a Turian named Kuril. It seems this procedure of selling useful prisoners is (or I should say was) standard practice on the Purgatory. I agreed to collect Jack, but planned to make it quite clear to her that, once aboard the Normandy, she was free to go if she wished. I'm not about to become a slave trader. But compelling Jack's compliance would have been impossible anyway. Had she proved intractable, nothing short of a lethal shot would have prevented her from killing us all.

There is no honour among thieves. Kuril betrayed us, and tried to take me and team prisoner. It seems someone had offered him a pretty price for me; I should be very interested to know whom.

When we commandeered the cell block controls for Jack's level and pulled her out of stasis, she tore through three heavy mechs in her initial charge alone. We pursued her to the docking bay, finding a trail of chaos and mayhem in our way. It seems we accidentally opened all the cells, not just Jack's. Inmates and guards were killing each other all over the place, both parties were trying to kill us, and anyone, prisoner or guard, who was unfortunate enough to be in Jack's path didn't live to tell about it.

From what we saw in that ship, the way the serial killers were abused by their keepers, I have a hard time feeling pity for any aboard the Purgatory. I heard reports of official government forces moved in afterward to restore order. There can't have been much left for them.

When we caught up with Jack in the docking bay, she initially refused to even consider taking passage aboard a Cerberus vessel, then quickly changed her mind and agreed to join us in return for information, everything we had in our Cerberus files. It seems she and Cerberus have a history. I shall be most interested to hear what she finds.

Looking at the trail of wreckage Jack left behind her, I am prepared to say I have never seen more absolute and widespread destruction inflicted by any one individual. There are doubtless Asari, even Alliance, biotics possessed of more skill and finesse; but for sheer strength and raw destructive power, Jack is without match. When the time comes hit the Collectors with as much hell as possible, she will likely prove the most valuable asset we have.

Kasumi is the best thief in the galaxy, not the most famous. She has no criminal record of any sort. Cerberus would never have found her had she not contacted them. She agreed to assist in the mission to stop the Collectors, but, in return, asked for help with a heist to recover her old partner's memory implant. It seems he discovered something big, stole something too important, and paid with his life. But the information was locked away in a memory device, or greybox, as Kasumi called it, inaccessible to anyone but her. It was in possession of organized crime lord Donovan Hock.

Having seen Kasumi's talents in action first hand, she didn't need my help at all recovering that greybox. It is clear she brought me along more for the purpose of testing my abilities than anything else. As for her own capabilities, her hacking and decryption skills exceed anything I've ever seen before, except perhaps for Tali. Kasumi virtually waltzed through seemingly impregnable security without effort. And in combat, she exhibited stunning feats of athletic prowess, obviously utilizing significant physical enhancements.

The greybox contained both the dangerous information, supposedly something that could implicate the Alliance, even start a war, and memories of Kasumi and Keiji's time together. Keiji's memory urged Kasumi to destroy the greybox and all the data inside, otherwise she would become a target for those looking for it.

I would greatly like to know the specifics of the potentially volatile information, but as the danger lay in its revelation, not its continued concealment, and to spare Kasumi the temptation to spend the rest of her life reliving her and Keiji's past, I urged her to do as he said. I am sorry for her loss, but dwelling upon shards will not restore the broken vase. She needs to come to terms with her lover's death, and move on.


	13. Chapter 13, Horizon

**13 Horizon**

\- An emergency message from the Illusive Man. Horizon, one of our colonies in the Terminus Systems, just went silent. It might not be Collectors, but it could be. Whatever the cause, it can't be good. As the colony lies outside Alliance space, the nearest response is days away, far too late to prevent imminent disaster. By good fortune the Normandy is relatively nearby, and can be there in a matter of hours. Still a dangerous delay, but hopefully not enough to render arrival pointless.

Mordin's countermeasure is now ready, in the eleventh hour as it were; efficacy is still strictly theoretical. Should his designs fail to deliver, this will be a short mission.

The team is arming up. Whatever we find happening on Horizon, we'll be ready. If it is Collectors we'll be facing, it'll be the first time any of us have seen them in person. Courage and cool mind in the face of the alien will be just as crucial as combat ability. Time to show these monsters that the prey can bite.

\- Hostile presence on Horizon confirmed. We're going in.

\- It was Collectors. We arrived mid-session to interrupt their seizure of the colonists. We commandeered the colony's defence towers, plugged EDI in to the system, and forced the Collector ship to withdraw. Special commendation to Dr. Solus in successfully veiling us from the Seeker Swarms. We saved the colony from complete capture, but half of the colonists were taken. This is the first time a Collector attack has ever been hampered, but the Human losses forbid me from claiming victory.

Ashley Williams was there. She had been assigned to command the Horizon defence garrison, and was one of the first to succumb to the debilitating Seeker Swarms. Whether by sheer chance or divine providence she was not among those taken. I don't know what I would have done had that happened. So many were taken, and one alone dogs my mind. We still don't know why the Collectors take their victims alive. Maybe it's best not to know.

It didn't go well between us. How could it have. As far as Ash knew, I had been dead for two years. Then I, or something wearing my face, shows up flanked by Cerberus personnel at the moment a Human colony is under attack. She told me Cerberus was in fact the Alliance's prime suspect for the abductions. Far better had she continued to think me dead than see me working with terrorists. She would have been perfectly within her rights, and duty as an Alliance officer, to attempt arresting me. I took my team and departed as soon as possible.

When the Collector threat has been neutralized, I will return, and maybe, just maybe, I may explain, and set things right between us. Thank God she was spared.

Grunt should be pleased. The Collectors proved themselves a tough fight, and even he must have had his fill. They appear to be insect-like humanoids, strangely crude and rudimentary in form, yet ruthlessly efficient fighting machines. The team performed admirably, no one flinched or failed to perform their duty. Bullets and blue fire flew, and Collector infantry, caught in the course of their grisly task, fell in swarms. The Collector leader never personally set foot outside his vessel, but appears to have the ability to possess any one of his soldiers at will. Harbinger, as he calls himself, addressed me by name, though I confess I little heeded his taunts; I was too busy directing the squad and mowing down Collectors with gunfire. I must have killed Harbinger a dozen times over in the course of the battle, as he left control of each successive body for the next.

We met more than Collectors during the battle of Horizon: they had brought with them human Husks. Different from the Husks the Geth made, these seemed a less electrified variant. All readings and samples acquired are being examined by Mordin. If we learn nothing else, it now seems quite apparent that the Collectors are indeed connected somehow to the Reapers.

We won't win against the Collectors by responding to their attacks. Next time the colony hit will likely be too far away to reach in time for even a partial victory. We need to hit them where they live. The only way to do that is to find some means of successfully navigating the Omega 4 Relay. The Illusive man tells me he is assigning all available resources to that end. In the meantime, I'll continue building my team.

It was no coincidence the Collectors struck where they did. The Illusive Man admitted to having let slip rumours of my revival, along with the fact that Ashley Williams was stationed on Horizon. His theory that the Collectors are after me personally, and anyone connected to me, seems to be proven.

Fool that I was, I'd believed the Illusive Man though I'd thought myself on guard. He'd told me that the Alliance was paying no heed whatever to the abductions, and now I find Horizon manned by an Alliance garrison complete with advanced defence cannons, with the ranking officer instructed to investigate possible connections between Cerberus and the attacks. I'm not surprised the Illusive Man lied. I'm surprised I took his word for it. I'll not be making that mistake again.

I still cannot quite comprehend the fact that Ash was so nearly lost, so narrowly spared from the ruthless alien hands that would have snatched her away. I cannot bring myself to believe that any conscious Will would have chosen to spare one specifically when so many others of equal value in His eyes were taken.

This has to end. I'll see it done.


	14. Chapter 14, Distractions

**14 Distractions**

\- Any good soldier knows that, before going to war, any matters at home must be squared away, all distractions dealt with. If unfinished business is left hanging, focus is compromised. When we finally launch through the Omega 4 Relay, we'll be in uncharted territory in the enemy's element without intel, without support, without backup; it will be a mission as dangerous and demanding as any of us have ever seen. There'll be no room for hesitation, no margin for error: every soldier will have to have a clear mind absolutely focused and clear of doubts or regrets. It won't be enough to _have_ the best. They need to all _be_ at their best.

\- Jacob has a missing Father. Ten years gone, and word of his missing ship surfaces. An anonymous message through the Cerberus Network about his father's ship, the Hugo Gurnesback. Lost for ten years in the Alpha Draconis system, a distress signal suddenly appeared. Jacob doesn't expect his father to be alive after all this time of radio silence, but he would like to find out just what the heck is going on.

Zaeed Massani wants to attack a refinery held by the Blue Suns. Something about revenge. As the refinery utilizes slave labour, it seems I also have cause to stop by.

A trip to Tuchanka is necessary for both Dr. Solus and Grunt, but for very different reasons. Mordin received word that one of his assistants in a secret STG op, re-establishing the waning Genophage, has been captured by Krogan clan Weryloc and taken to Tuchanka. I immediately agreed to help Mordin effect a rescue. Grunt, for unknown reasons, has begun to grow increasingly anxious and angry, saying he doesn't know why, only that he wants to kill, rend and destroy, with his hands and teeth. This anger, he said, seemed foreign to him, a sickness rather than a response or choice. Krogan Medicine is not a popular study, and the Krogan are understandably defensive concerning such matters, and only rarely at best consent to divulging relevant information to the galactic public. If a cure to Grunt's condition can be found, it will be on the Krogan homeworld.

Miranda has with verbalized regret asked for my help. She needs my assistance to oversee the safe relocation of her twin sister, whom she helped escape from their father. She tells me Mr. Lawson is a ruthless man of wealth and ambition set upon defining his legacy, and his daughters were merely tools to that end. Miranda's sister, Oriana, is on Illium. The scheduled relocation occurs in a few days time. I've agreed to bring the Normandy into Illium in time for Miranda to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Jack has completed her research. She's found the location of the secret Cerberus base where she was raised, and wants to blow it up. It seems she was taken by Cerberus in her infancy and raised to become a super-biotic. The methods used were horrific. Other children were used as test subjects to ensure that Jack herself would not die from the treatments they inflicted on her. Cerberus is composed of isolated Cells, the commanding officer of each answering directly to the Illusive Man. It is a system that allows people like Jacob to believe that, because they personally are doing good things, Cerberus as a whole is good. It is uncertain if The Illusive Man knew the extent and nature of means that Cell was using toward their assigned end, but I suspect he didn't care to look too closely, so long as they delivered their end product. But instead Jack broke out and tore the place apart. It now lies deserted and empty, an abandoned house of horror that Jack wants to thoroughly and finally obliterate. I can certainly sympathize, and have promised Jack a detour to that end before we make our move through the Omega 4 Relay.

\- The distress signal from the Hugo Gurnesback originated from the planet 2175 Aeia. When we investigated, we found Jacob's father, Ronald Taylor, the only surviving officer of the ship, the rest of the remaining crew all cognitively compromised. They'd crash-landed on 2175 Aeia, a planet capable of sustaining human life, but providing only toxic food that resulted in significant neural decay. The decision was made to reserve food stores from the ship for the officers who were building the distress beacon, the rest of the crew would have to eat the indigenous plants and hope for treatment upon rescue; a calculated sacrifice of limited scope to ensure the eventual recovery of all concerned.

But in the end, Ronald Taylor had slid into the role of supreme being on the planet through his maintained intelligence and control of the security drones, dominating the camp, turning out the other men, and living for ten years in a harem of the crew women. When after ten years food stores from the ship ran low, and he faced the threat of also surviving on the mind-decaying vegetation, he finally activated the distress beacon.

He is now in Alliance custody with charges pending, his crew in rehabilitative treatment. Jacob has denounced his father and put the matter behind him. For a moment, when we met Ronald Taylor on the planet, I'd thought Jacob was going to kill him. I'm pleased to see he not only had the self possession to refrain without my intervention, but the strength to, once resolved, put the issue behind him.

The tip about the distress signal came from Miranda. She told Jacob that she'd been keeping a promise. It seems those two have more of a history together than I'd thought. Given their disparate characters, I'm not surprised it didn't work out. Jacob is a true-blue honest and straight-forward chap, a regular brick whose greatest fault lies in trusting too easily, believing that because his own intentions are pure, Cerberus is too. With the likes of Jack and Grunt aboard, he's far from the most powerful team member, but he and Garrus are the most trustworthy and dependable squadmates I have.

\- It turns out Zaeed founded the Blue Suns, him and his business partner Vido. Vido turned on him and tried to murder him. That was twenty years ago. Now that he'd finally caught up to Vido, Zaeed was so reckless and angry he deliberately set the whole bloody refinery ablaze when we moved in. Consequently we had to devote our immediate attention to saving the slaves from the fire. Zaeed seemed to think it my fault that Vido got away. After I explained to him the principle he had just so clearly demonstrated, the danger in putting personal emotions ahead of the mission, he ruefully consented to fall in line. Hopefully the demonstration of priorities has not been wasted on him.

\- Tuchanka is in the midst of political revolution, as in there is a movement for the clans to stop killing each other and work together. Wrex has been busy over the last two years. Not only did he rise to the position of Chief of clan Urdnot, he's busy at work trying to establish regular diplomatic ties between the clans, foment alliances and cease constant infighting. I'd known since I first met him that Wrex was, despite possessing the typical ferocity and bloodthirst of his kind, more contemplative and thoughtful between battles than most Krogan, but I never would have expected him to possess the magnetism and will required to compel his warlike kin to put aside traditional animosity and unify in mutual interest of survival.

It seems nothing was strictly wrong with Grunt, he is merely hitting maturity, and was experiencing what was more or less the Krogan equivalent of teenage angst. Upon successfully weathering the Krogan Rite of Passage, a sequenced battle against beasts in an arena that culminated in surviving a Thresher Maw, Grunt was granted full citizenship in the clan, becoming Urdnot Grunt. When told to choose a Battlemaster to serve, Grunt surprised me by declaring me his Battlemaster. It seems that despite our initial cold terms, Grunt has grown fond of his "matchless" commander. I'm touched.

Now having found his place and purpose, Grunt has ceased fearing and resenting his rage, and instead embraced it for its purpose, making him a vicious Krogan warrior with Clan and allegiance. As he puts it, "our enemies are in trouble, Shepard."

Having touched base with Wrex, calmed Grunt, and solidified respect in clan Urdnot, we can seek out Mordin's assistant, Maelon.

\- Weyrlock hadn't captured Maelon. He'd gone to them willingly, to undo his and his teacher's work by curing the Genophage. He'd stolen the STG Genophage data, and was conducting experiments on living subjects; Human, Turian, Varren, even Krogan. Weyrlock Guld, the clan chief, was a racial supremacist megalomaniac with delusions of destiny, intent upon reviving the Krogan Rebellions and forming a Galaxy-spanning Krogan Empire, killing all Turians and Asari but keeping the Salarians as slaves and food.

Creating the Genophage was arguably the lesser of two evils. I'm glad that the decision to deploy it was never put to me. I can readily understand and sympathize with any Krogan wanting to cure the Genophage, but when the Krogan in possession of a potential cure also possess the intent to "spread across the Galaxy in a sea of blood," I have no compunctions about shutting down their operation with lethal force.

When we fought our way through the base guards and confronted Maelon, he insisted he was doing the right thing, that the end justified any means to achieve it. Mordin declared his goals unacceptable and his means the same. Had I not intervened, he would have punctuated the sentence with a bullet.

The research base has been gutted of all data, the servers inside wiped clean. Weryloc Guld and his guards are dead, Maeolon has been sent packing, and his research is in Mordin's custody in the Normandy's lab.

I wonder how long he can keep his hands off it.


	15. Chapter 15, Opportunity Strikes

**15 Opportunity Strikes**

\- Priority message from The Illusive Man. A Turian distress signal was intercepted by Cerberus. The message indicates encounter with a Collector vessel. The Turian ship was destroyed, but purportedly managed to disable the Collector ship. This is an unparalleled opportunity to case a Collector vessel for intel, most crucially on how to navigate the Omega 4 Relay.

The Normandy SR1 was torn apart by a Collector ship without even the chance to return fire. Turian military scientists could have developed secret technology capable of disabling a Collector Ship. Theoretically.

The Normandy is en route. We can get there, search the ship, and get out before Turian rescue arrives.

\- Situation confirmed. The rubble of a Turian frigate is drifting near an apparently lifeless Collector ship. The enemy vessel is adrift and devoid of energy signatures. The hull seems oddly undamaged. Could the Turians have used electronic warfare? I don't know. Something smells fishy here.

There could still be Collectors alive inside the ship, if so they'll be making repairs as fast as they can. I'm going in with only a small team, Garrus and Grunt. We'll slip in, link EDI in to the Collectors' computers, mine for data, get out, and blow the Collector ship to rubble.

\- "It's a trap!" The distress signal was a fake. The Collectors had destroyed the Turian ship and forged the signal to lure us in. As soon as we linked EDI in to the Collector servers, a virus attempted to cripple the Normandy and the Collector ship began powering up. Swarms of Collectors and Husks closed in on the squad. Had it not been for EDI opening doors for us we would have never survived. Had she not been managing the Normandy's software defence, we would have had no getaway option. We got out of there just in time, and the second Normandy very nearly suffered the fate of her predecessor.

Turian transmissions use redundant encryption. EDI detected their absence using the same Cerberus protocols The Illusive Man would have when his agents first found the signal. He knew it was a trap and sent us in blind.

I don't mind walking into a trap to deliberately spring it under the enemy's nose. I do object to being lied to. I did of course already know The Illusive Man couldn't be trusted, but I didn't expect him to deliberately and needlessly endanger a major investment. I am reminded of that old entertainment series Star Trek, when the supremely logical Starfleet officer makes the mistake of assuming his enemies are also logical. If The Illusive Man's judgement is as compromised as his scruples, the future of Cerberus is not a rosy one.

The interior of the Collector Ship didn't look like a ship at all; more akin to some form of dark and twisted hive. Pods for holding prisoners lined the ceilings and littered the floors. We found no surviving victims, only their discarded bodies thrown carelessly aside in heaps. Thank goodness that at least their suffering is over. There was room in that ship to hold every Human in the Terminus Systems. The capacity's implied intent must not, will not, be fulfilled.

A fascinating and horrific discovery was made. The Collectors are not an original species. Segments of their DNA strand matches patterns found in the cryogenic chambers on Ilos; the Collectors are what's left of the Protheans. The Reapers didn't even have the decency to outright destroy them. Instead they kept the last Protheans in a twisted and warped form with no semblance of free will, empty husks with no purpose but to serve as the slaves of their own doom. This is the fate that awaits Humans and every other race in the Galaxy should the Reapers succeed again. A clean death and oblivion would be a preferable fate.

This Collector ship was the same one that destroyed the original Normandy. A man would have to be more than blind not to see a pattern here. Could it be purely revenge that motivates the Reaper's slaves (if that word even has meaning for them) to target me specifically, or could there be more to it? The Illusive Man wanted me alive and free as a symbol. Perhaps the Reapers want to take me alive for much the same reasons, to turn me into a living symbol of their power by taking the one credited with Sovereign's death and turning him into their slave for all the Galaxy to see. That is not going to happen.

The virus attack and narrow escape notwithstanding, EDI got the information we need. The Omega 4 Relay leads directly into the bull's-eye centre of the Galaxy. The only possible explanation must be that a small safe zone is carved out in the midst of black holes and exploding suns therein, a pocket in space likely smaller than the standard drift range of most ships, which exit light-speed with a margin of several thousand kilometres. The Collector ships use a form of IFF signal to ensure the Relay places them within the safe zone. Bitter irony that we now know the tool we need was on the ship we just left.

Fortunately the Illusive Man has another bright idea. His scientists have been studying a top secret find hidden in the periphery of a brown dwarf, a derelict Reaper corpse. The team went silent a few months ago, and The Illusive Man hasn't sent an investigation yet. Given the connection between the Collectors and the Reapers, it is almost certain that the Reaper will have the requisite IFF to navigate the Reaper-forged Relay.

The Illusive Man has made it quite clear he's willing to endanger our operations by providing faulty information. If he knows anything more about the situation of this dead Reaper and the risks entailed in boarding it, he hasn't seen fit to tell us. Boarding a Collector ship is one thing, a Reaper is quite another. Sovereign warped people's will by its sheer presence. Within days, weeks at best, anyone in its vicinity lost themselves to Indoctrination. It is quite possible that The Illusive Man's survey team suffered the same fate. If the scientists are still alive, it is in a state that precludes even the possibility of rescue. We have no idea who killed this Reaper, only that its death pre-dates the Protheans. If it's stayed dead this long, hopefully it will stay dead a little bit longer.

The Reapers will come, sooner or later. When that happens, we need be ready for them. We need to improve our weapons and defences, we will need to unite all spacefaring species against the coming invasion. It won't be easy. Authority figures are determined to disbelieve the Reapers even exist. If Anderson and I can't find some way to persuade or circumvent the Citadel Council, the Galaxy will remain blind and fractured until it is too late.

One thing at a time. Anderson is doing what he can in official circles to counter the propaganda of safety. My job is to deal with the immediate threat of the Collectors. When we make our move through the Omega 4 Relay, there's no telling what we'll find. We'll be one squad serving the purpose of an army. We have a good team, some of the best fighters in the Galaxy, but we could use more. We also need to make sure that everyone is at their best, no distractions or complications. We'll need the best tech and upgrades Mordin can conjure up; standard issue weapons and armour won't do. The Collectors can detect even the stealthy Normandy, and we can't afford to be chased away like a scared and fangless rabbit again. We need to improve our ship's armaments, and find some way to toughen up defences enough to survive open combat with a Collector ship. It's a tall order, but we have no choice. I've put the question to the crew about how to best upgrade the Normandy. Garrus and Jacob say they have some ideas. When we put in to dock on Illlium, we can overhaul the Normandy and implement the designs Garrus and Jacob provide. The Illusive Man can take the bill.

I am told Liara is on Illium, working as an information broker. In direct contradiction of what The Illusive Man initially told me, she is hunting the Shadow Broker, not working for him. The Illusive Man seems to have no concern for even pretending to be trustworthy. He's told me so many lies I'm starting to lose track. He told me the Alliance was ignoring the Collector threat. Ashley and the Horizon garrison were a direct contradiction of that. He told me the Collector ship was disabled. The question I ask myself is no longer "where is he lying" but "where is he telling the truth."


	16. Chapter 16, Illium

**16 Illium**

\- Illium is the centre of Asari trade in the Terminus Systems. A superficial veneer of safety and upper-class tidiness masks a core of corruption and crime as dangerous and dirty as Omega. I was stationed here for a time before I was first assigned to the first Normandy; a cushy security assignment as a reward for Elysium. I didn't much care for it.

Jacob has pulled a few strings and gotten a hold of an experimental armour design for the Normandy, Asari in origin.

Garrus has almost certainly broken regulations to provide me with Turian blueprints for a radical new weapon design, Thanix Cannons. The weapons fire a stream of super-heated molten metal rather than a solid projectile. Not only will it penetrate Collector ship armour, it will in theory, with the right calibration, penetrate the hull of an enemy ship, then

conservation of energy will transfer the force of momentum into heat upon the deceleration of impact, tipping the balance of the molten stream into a full-blown plasma explosion inside the hull before it passes out the other side. This technology and method, if it works as promised, is a massive improvement, not just over Alliance tech, but even Collector armaments. Their particle beam weapon drilled holes clean through the first Normandy. If they had used these Thanix Cannons, no one would have survived that attack. I'm reminded of the old Earth American patrol boats used in the second world war. Their lightweight, thin wooden hulls would allow enemy torpedoes to shoot right through them without detonating.

It will take some time for the new weapons systems and armour to be installed on the Normandy. Fortunately funds are not an object. I'm granting the crew shore leave in cycles, with orders to enjoy our brief stay on Illium and stay out of trouble.

I going to see how Liara's doing. I don't expect her to be any more inclined to trust me than Ash or Anderson, but I should at least give her what intel Cerberus has on the Shadow Broker. Being an information broker herself, Liara may have some suggestions for recruits here on Illium.

\- I expected civil courtesy from Liara. I didn't expect her to welcome me with open arms. It turns out she has good reason to believe I'm actually me; she was the one to recover my lifeless body from the Shadow Broker's agents who first found me. She's waited two suspenseful years for the completion of project Lazurus. The poor dear was afraid I would hate her for handing me over to Cerberus. A significant risk, I'll admit, but hardly worth hating her for. I owe her my life.

Liara does indeed know of two likely candidates for my team. Samara, an Asari Justicar, and Thane Krios, a Drell assassin.

Justicar's are something akin to knight errants, a monastic order of independent individuals who pursue evildoers and bring justice wherever they go. Absolutely devoted to a strict moral code, they are selfless and tireless warriors, representing the highest beliefs of the Asari. Justicars operate above the law, but are not recognized or even widely known of outside of Asari culture, and there is some concern among the Asari in general about the diplomatic ramifications should a Justicar inflict justice upon a member of another species.

Thane is an assassin of high repute. Despite an extensive kill record, he has had no contracted hits for a stretch of many years. He reportedly has a target on Illium, but Liara cannot find anything regarding a fee.

I've given Liara the Cerberus intel on the Shadow Broker, and even helped her to discover one of his spies in the person of her secretary. Liara thinks she can use the information to finally track the Shadow Broker to his lair. I've never seen Liara so strongly hate or desire the destruction of anyone like this before, not even Saren or Sovereign who turned her mother into a slave of evil. She says the Shadow Broker was going to sell my body to the Collectors before she stole me from his agents, that her partner in the mission, a Drell named Feron, sacrificed himself to allow her to escape with my corpse. She'd thought him dead, but the Cerberus intel implies otherwise. She's spent the past two years planning revenge. Now she has the chance to make it a rescue. I'm glad her mission to take down the Shadow Broker (a criminal mastermind with a galaxy-spanning network of spies) ties in with my official goals. Not only is the Shadow Broker a threat in and of himself, his dealings with the Collectors render him a potentially game-changing source of information.

Liara needs some time to work through the data. I'll come by her apartment when she's ready. In the meantime, I have two fighters to recruit, and Miranda's sister to protect.

\- Samara and Thane both agreed to help me stop the Collectors. Each one was on Illium with the intent of killing a target. Both exhibit exceptional combat ability, with both biotics and more conventional methods, though with vastly different approach methods. Samara marched into an Eclipse hideout and massacred the heavily armed mercs in open biotic combat, a veritable goddess of grim and inexorable justice. Thane, in keeping with standard assassin doctrine, prefers the more covert approach; his target never saw him until just before he pulled the trigger in her face. Contrary to standard assassin method, however, he agreed to lend his aid against the Collectors, without charge.

Thane's target was a wealthy Asari businesswoman with a nasty reputation of murdering her business rivals. Upon infiltrating her property in our search for Thane we discovered her mechs and security shooting the workers assigned to the building. It seems she got wind of Thane's coming, and had ordered her men to clear out the building immediately. Questioning the workers revealed they hated their employer, but hadn't quit because of rumours that anyone who did would disappear. Whatever nefarious business Nassana Dantius conducted, she wanted no chance of it getting out.

Samara is pursuing what she only describes as a very dangerous criminal. She'd tracked her target to Illium, but the Eclipse had smuggled the target off-world. I helped Samara find the name of the ship, and she vowed to aid me in my mission against the Collectors. The oath came with a warning that, if ordered to commit a dishonourable deed, she would be obliged to kill me.

I like Thane. He spoke of having done to much to make the Galaxy darker, that he wants to spend what time he has left making it brighter before he dies. Nassana was to have been his last mission, but an opportunity to stop attacks on Human colonies changed his plans. He suffers from terminal illness, non-communicable and painless, but his window is closing. If I can offer him more of what he seeks, atonement for past murder, I am glad.

Samara I do not like. While Thane seems to act from the promptings of his conscience, Samara apparently allows her Justicar code to dictate her actions to the exclusion of all else. As far as I can tell, the code in question is a worthy one that demands its adherents protect the innocent at all cost to one's self, to smite the evil and the unjust wherever found, but it cannot possibly provide dependable moral guidance for every conceivable situation. I mistrust anyone who hides behind an institutional dogma rather than taking responsibility for their own actions. I believe Samara to possess righteous intentions, but her exclusive and absolute devotion to the code may indicate a hidden frailty of will, perhaps even mental cowardice.

\- Miranda's sister and her adoptive family are safe in their new location. Miranda and Oriana's father have no idea now where Oriana is. Unfortunately, the security of Oriana's family came at a price. Niket, Miranda's oldest friend, the man who first helped her escape from her father, had been the only link. Niket hadn't known about Miranda stealing Oriana away from her father, and wanted to return the girl to a life of wealth and safety. When we began convincing him to deceive Mr. Lawson and permit Oriana to live with the only family she'd ever known, the Eclipse captain assigned escort Niket shot him.

It's come as a welcome change to see Miranda busy thinking about the safety and happiness of another human being, her sister, rather than ceaselessly obsessing about her devotion to Cerberus and adulation of The Illusive Man.

\- Liara sent me a message saying she'd sifted through the data and narrowed down a solid lead. I'm on my way toward her apartment.


	17. Chapter 17, The Shadow Broker

**17 The Shadow Broker**

\- When we got to Liara's apartment we found a police investigation underway. Someone had shot at Liara through the window. A Spectre, an Asari named Vasir, was overseeing the investigation. Turns out she was the one who tried to kill Liara. Long story short, Vasir and a small army of Shadow Broker commandos blew up an entire building and killed dozens of people trying to finish Liara off. I'm pleased to say none of these professional murderers will be continuing their careers of indiscriminate homicide.

As Vasir lay bleeding her lifeblood out on the ground, riddled with bullets far past what would have killed an ordinary soldier, she spent her dying breath accusing me of being no better than her because I'm "friends with Cerberus." She then lacked the courtesy to stick around long enough for me to tell her off. Yes, I am affiliated with Cerberus, a terrorist organization guilty of a long list of crimes and atrocities. The difference is, unlike Vasir, I'm not doing the bad guy's dirty work. I'm not the one who murdered innocent civilians. I am by necessity of circumstance taking Cerberus resources for my own ends, saving people from the Collectors. Funny thing is, she kept telling me not to dare judge her. I don't have to. She's gone to meet Someone who will.

Liara has the Shadow Broker's location narrowed down to a star system in the Hourglass Nebula, Sowilo. Time to pay the fellow a friendly little visit.

\- Rather than carry out the painstaking and time-consuming process of searching every planet in the system, Liara calculated the most likely hiding places and prioritized the most bizarre and descriptively prestigious options. Sure enough, we quickly found the Shadow Brokers base, a cruiser of unregistered design, in a site high on Liara's list. Hidden in the constant storm that follows the edge of the sunset on planet Hagalaz, where the oceans boil during the day and snap freeze ten minutes after sundown. Pleasant locale, this place.

Whether the Shadow Broker lacks the technological sophistication of the Collectors or the storm concealing his ship also hinders his sensors, the stealthy Normandy has managed to slip into a parallel course without apparent detection. Preparing for shuttle launch. Garrus, Liara, and myself will be taking on unknown odds together just like old times.

\- Mission complete. We successfully infiltrated the Shadow Broker's ship and stormed his office. Quite a sight he was. BigAndUgly's the word for him. An immense dark red-skinned biped with a three segmented jaw and more eyes than I could count while busy shooting at them.

I'd initially planned on offering him the chance to surrender, but he didn't seem interested. It's not like he didn't know who we were; being the Shadow Broker, and referring to us each by name, he knew everything about us. Which begs the question of how he thought he had any chance against Liara, an Asari pureblood possessed of biotic ability exceptional even for her kind, Garrus Vakarian, AKA Archangel, a Turian vigilante who survived half the thugs in the Omega Nebula trying to kill him, and myself, Humanity's finest marine. Spectres are the best fighters in the Galaxy, and I've killed two of them.

His hubris was somewhat justified on account of a unique defence system in his office, a shield projector in the ceiling that rendered conventional weapons fire against him nearly useless. But lo and behold, Liara had the brilliant idea to destroy the shield projector. Pulled the whole mess down on that monster's head.

Naturally, the Shadow Broker's staff started noticing something was amiss, and started radioing in for orders. Liara stepped up. She commandeered the Shadow Broker's translator, ordered standard procedures resumed and a report on all operations within the next twenty-four hours. No one, not even the people who worked for him on his own ship, had ever seen the Shadow Broker; he was completely anonymous. With control of his terminals and office, Liara is the Shadow Broker.

This turnout surpasses my best hopes for mission results. I'd expected to salvage some data before pulling out of a potentially crashing ship. Instead, Liara now has full access to all of the Shadow Broker's resources; all of his agents, all of his intel, everything his Galaxy-spanning network has accumulated, is now at our disposal. This is an enormous challenge, but Liara has embraced it. With her direction, this immense web of ominous power with feelers in every major organization and government in the galaxy can be turned from a threat into something better.

I'd suspected that, despite Liara's hopes, Feron would be long gone, but I was wrong. He was alive and imprisoned on the Shadow Broker's ship, having spent two years subject to intermittent torture whenever the Shadow Broker got bored. Feron is surprisingly sane and calm despite his treatment, and is even helping Liara sift through the tremendous mountains of information available to her.

The scope and detail of the Shadow Broker's intel is incredible. Liara can access up-to-date information on what The Illusive Man ate for breakfast, on my crew's internet activity, on the identity of nearly all major crime bosses in the galaxy, on security codes for top-level access to Turian and Human governments, the list goes on and on. The immediate danger is being overwhelmed by the sheer mass of information available. Liara seems not only to be handling the situation, but even perhaps thriving in it. She never ceases to amaze me.

The Shadow Broker had extensive information on Cerberus, enough to allow the Alliance to put a sever dent in their resources and sniff out a great many nefarious operations and plots, past and present. The list of tamperings in politics conducted by Cerberus, slander, bribery, and murder, is extensive. This information, once revealed, rewrites much of recent history.

Unfortunately, even the Shadow Broker had little information on the Collectors. We do know that he knew about the Reapers, perhaps even before we did, and had been searching for clues the Protheans might have left behind. It doesn't quite make sense that, knowing about the Collector's and their connection to Reapers, he had been conducting business with them. Did he calculate his dealings as being of insufficient benefit to the Collectors to constitute a tangible aid to the Reapers?

I now leave Liara one of the most powerful people in the Galaxy, with perhaps the most demanding job in the Galaxy. If anyone is capable of steering the Shadow Broker's ship, it is her.


	18. Chapter 18, Demon of the Night Winds

**18 Demon of the Night Winds**

\- Sometimes I think Garrus doesn't sleep. Every time I check in on him he's always tinkering and tuning restlessly in the main battery. "Calibrations," he'll say, and bury himself in his work again. He's grown more reckless in combat, taking needless risks with no apparent regard for his own safety. The lives of his lost crew weigh heavily upon him. He told me how his squad died. They were betrayed by one within their own ranks. The traitor, a Turian named Sidonis, is unaccounted for. When Garrus finally finds the one who betrayed them, that man's life won't be worth a spent thermal clip.

Miranda seems to have taken courtesy on my part as some kind of suggestion. I don't know if she's contracted a genuine crush, perhaps on a backswing from recently-deceased Niket, or if this is some sort of plot to tie me more tightly to Cerberus, to compromise my judgement and learn my inner thoughts. Either way, I want nothing to do with it. I wish the woman would at least put some decent clothes on. Her face alone is distracting enough without flaunting her everything in plain view.

Jack doesn't mingle much with the crew. She spends all of her time lurking in her lair staked out in the shadowed recesses of the ship's innards. The engineers have begun scheduling their maintenance with her rare vacancies of the area when I have her out in the field. I still haven't taken her to blow up Pragia yet, and her impatience is tangible. It's not healthy for the Normandy to have a disgruntled and anxious super-biotic fuming silently in its bowels.

Joker and EDI are constantly squabbling. If I didn't know better, just listening to them across the bridge, I'd think they were an old married couple or something.

Samara has asked that we divert to Omega where her target landed. She tells me the fugitive, an Asari with centuries of regular murders, is what her people call an Ardat Yakshi, or Demon of the Night Winds. A rare genetic fluke found only in purebloods, these Asari cannot mate without destroying their partner's mind. The effect becomes a narcotic to the Ardat Yakshi, and killing becomes addictive. When the condition is detected in a young Asari, they are offered a simple choice: to live a life of monitored seclusion, or to die. This Ardat Yakshi, Morinth, fled. She has evaded pursuit for centuries, and the corpses of those who have lain with her number in the thousands. Samara has devoted four hundred years of her life to tracking down this one Ardat Yakshi, her daughter. When she finds Morinth, she will kill her.

I'm starting to understand why Samara chooses to bind herself to the Justicar code.

Setting course for Omega.

\- Morinth's presence on Omega confirmed. Her latest victim, a reclusive human girl with artistic talent, was declared a death of brain haemorrhage. That may be technically accurate. Given information found in the girl's journal, Morinth can likely be found in the VIP section of Afterlife.

Samara wants to handle this differently from my inclination. I'd simply wait in ambush in sight of Afterlife with Garrus and Thane. As soon as Morinth walks out, she receives three high-calibre sniper bullets in the head. Samara thinks it too risky. Having evaded pursuit for centuries, Morinth is naturally cagey and slippery. She might, against all odds, get wind of us and simply disappear again. Or she might survive lethal injury long enough to kill surrounding innocents in a flurry of biotic power amidst her death throes.

Instead, Samara wants me to pose as a potential victim, to lure Morinth out and lower her guard. Morinth is selective in her choice of prey, singling out artists and those who stand out. I daresay I could make myself noticeable among the civilians and thugs in Afterlife easily enough. Once I've gotten her attention, I am to engage her in conversation and take the encounter to her apartment, where Samara will confront her and conclude her quest.

I do not like this. Not one little bit. I'll be walking right into the spider's web. A most sinister and distasteful spider at that. But to be fair the plan does have its merits. It improves the odds of successfully catching Morinth and limits the chances of civilian casualties. But I still don't like it. Nevertheless, this is Samara's mission, and her plan is the most sound. We'll do it her way. Garrus is furious at being left out, and insists on covering me from a discreet distance the whole time. I've agreed, on the grounds that he take every precaution against detection and hold fire unless absolutely necessary. This kill is rightfully Samara's.

\- Mission complete. The Spider is dead. Making an impression on Morinth was a breeze. Lulling her into a state of greedy assurance was easy. The hard part was resisting the impulse to break her neck the moment I was within arm's reach. I understand now another reason why Samara chose the plan she did. It wasn't just to protect bystanders or put Morinth off-guard. It was a trial; giving Morinth one last chance to prove herself to be other than a murderer. But Morinth failed the test. She took the bait and sought to devour the proffered victim. Samara then concluded her four-hundred-year mission, and killed her daughter in single combat.

I have no children of my own. What must it mean to Samara, I cannot imagine. There is nothing I can say to ease the pain. Samara has done the only thing that could be done. It should never have needed to be.

But justice is now served. The Monster is destroyed, and the dead now can rest in peace.


	19. Chapter 19, The Clutches of Cerberus

**19 The Clutches of Cerberus**

\- The long-promised trip to Pragia has been seen to. What we found there, I'm sad to say, doesn't even surprise me. Amidst the crumbling ruin clutched by mutant plant vines we found the fading story of a veritable hell-hole. The Teltin Cell had abducted every child with biotic potential they could get their hands on. All of them were used as test subjects, just so many human lab rats. Any procedure, no matter how horrific, that might theoretically improve biotic strength was carried out upon these children. All were expendable, all except Subject Zero; Jack was the focal point of the entire project. All of the atrocities inflicted upon her and the other children were for the sole purpose of turning her into an invincible super-biotic.

It is unclear if Jack matched their expectations. Her strength certainly exceeds that of any other biotic I've met. The astonishing thing is that she retains any level sanity. A mind subject to a childhood of constant torture and abuse, no human contact beyond killing other children, should have turned her into a genuine monster, completely devoid of any semblance of basic humanity. How she managed to cling to sanity, to remain a functional human being in any degree, is beyond me.

Exactly what happened at Teltin is unclear. All that we know for certain is that Jack broke out of her cell and tore through anything in her path. She escaped Teltin, then was captured and abused by pirates. After a mixed career of crime she was again captured and imprisoned on the Purgatory. She's never had anything like a chance at a normal life. Hopefully, if we survive the mission to stop the Collectors, she will finally get that opportunity.

We found another escapee from Teltin there. The poor fellow, Aresh, he called himself, was drawn back to the place he couldn't forget. In his crazed state he planned to restart the Teltin project, to discover why they had inflicted such horrors upon him. Jack sent him scampering, where to I know not.

Something fishy about Teltin. We came across communication records that implied the details of their experiments were unknown to the Illusive Man. Aresh claimed to have been in the ruin for about a year, but his hired security escort spoke as though they'd just arrived. Did the Illusive Man send Aresh to plant false evidence and shift the blame down the chain of command? I shouldn't be the slightest bit surprised.

Even Miranda seems shaken by what we found on Pragia. She adamantly denies Cerberus proper had anything to do with it, insisting that the Teltin project had gone rogue. Sure. Whatever helps her sleep at night. Jack, desperate for satisfaction, nearly started a biotic brawl with Miranda for refusing to apologise on behalf of Cerberus. The sooner we complete our mission and those two go their separate ways the better. Jack has agreed to remain below decks and leave Miranda alone. For now.

Strange that Jack should have escaped the clutches of Cerberus so many years ago, only to find herself once more ensnared in their machinations. Of her own volition, to be sure, but little better for that. We're all in this web together now, all by choice and with good purpose. But once purpose is fulfilled, when the game is played and the cards laid bare, It's all of our necks on the line, even if we survive the mission. It's up to me to find a way out of that noose.

\- I'm seeing reports in the Cerberus intelligence network of an increase in Geth sightings. I've just saved a civilian munitions vessel, the MSV Broken Arrow, from colliding with a planet in the Nariph system. The ship had been commandeered by Geth and deliberately set on collision course. That's just plain odd. The Geth are perhaps the most technologically advanced species in the galaxy, viciously logical and deadly in combat and planning. If they're resuming hostilities outside of their home system again, why are they resorting to paltry tactics like seizing a civilian freighter? That's the sort of strategy I'd expect to see used by Batarian pirates, who are more interested in hurting as many people as possible than risking their own skin. Geth are cunning and deadly fighters, ruthlessly implementing vicious attacks upon their enemy, optimizing damage dealt and paying no heed to the cost in their own forces. They're not at all senselessly suicidal, but destroying their enemy is their primary focus; their own casualties are a mere detail.

There are also reports of Quarian's encountering the Geth. Tali, in command of a stealthy investigation, has been sent into the Dholen System in the far rim. That system is occupied by Geth. I don't know why the Quarians sent their people in there, but I plan to find out.

There's another, seemingly unrelated, reason to investigate Dholen: the Cerberus web. When the Collector threat is dealt with, I'll be cutting ties with Cerberus and taking the Normandy back to the Alliance. When that happens, the Illusive Man will almost certainly activate failsafes built into the Normandy to prevent me from doing just that. I need help discreetly finding the hooks hidden in the Normandy, and removing them. Immediately if possible, or at the last minute if necessary. Tali is brilliant, even for a Quarian, and knew the old Normandy inside and out. Moreover, she's someone I can trust. If anyone can free the Normandy, it's her.

\- Tali and her team are on the planet Haestrom. It looks like they've been detected, and are engaging superior Geth forces. Moving in.

\- Most of the Quarian's are dead, shot by Geth infantry or bombed by the Geth dropship. Tali is alive, as is the Quarian marine charged with her safety, Kal Reeger. They'd been sent to investigate the system's star, Dholen. It's aging prematurely, the interior's mass increasing at an unprecedented rate. Within a hundred years, perhaps more, the star will go critical.

Understanding in theory how to increase the star's mass is simple; application of dark energy through mass effect technology. There are however two massive problems: the problem of scale and the problem of origin. No known species has every created a warp field powerful enough to crush the interior of a star. It seems unlikely the Geth would use such an inefficient weapon, the effects would take a century at best to come to fruition, and their opponent would have long since discovered the danger and evacuated. Moreover, the Geth are eminently practical, and wouldn't destroy an entire system and all of the resources on every planet, asteroid and comet therein.

To my surprise, Tali not only agreed to accompany me, she even got official clearance from her superiors to do so. She says I'll need people I can trust if I'm working with Cerberus. I suspect her superiors sent her orders to infiltrate the Normandy and spy on Cerberus, find out what precisely Commander Shepard is up to.

This business of Dholen reminds me of the mystery of Rothla. An entire planet blown to bits by Krogan. They didn't live to tell us how they did it, and I suspect they didn't do it on purpose (you never know with Krogan). It's possible that clan discovered a hidden super-weapon from a previous cycle meant to fight the Reapers. It's also possible this soon-to-be-exploding star is something of the same sort ticking over, perhaps accidentally triggered by the Geth. In any case, neither super-weapon, intentional or not, is likely to prove useful.

I've received a message from Admiral Hackett. He's asked me to recover the missing dog tags from the crash site of SR1, and plant a memorial to mark the spot.

According to the Shadow Broker's intel on Hackett, he refused permission to Alliance forces to detain me. I'm grateful. This job would be much more difficult if I were constantly dodging Alliance agents. I owe Hackett a great deal for his allowing me a chance to prove myself. I'll plant the memorial before I board that dead Reaper. It won't be a pleasant experience, but I'm honoured to be given the job.


	20. Chapter 20, Dangerous Paths

20 Dangerous Paths

\- Garrus's old contacts on the Citadel have spotted Sidonis. The traitor went to a specialist criminal named Fade to obtain false ID and a hiding place. We'll take the Normandy there right away. Thane also has business on the Citadel. He has a son who is trying to follow in his father's footsteps and has been hired for a kill. Thane wants to stop his son making the same mistakes he did.

\- Thane's son Kolyat had been hired by a Human crime boss on the Citadel named Elias Kelham to assassinate a Turian political candidate who was telling his constituents that all Humans were uniformly criminal and racist in nature. He then sent his security to harass Human shopkeepers. We found Kolyat at the last moment and had a textbook hostage situation on our hands. Kolyat made the mistake of raising the gun from the Turian to point it at me. He's now in C-Sec Custody, his target alive and well.

Thane paid his son little heed in the past. It will take time for them to patch up matters between them. At least we stopped the young Drell from committing murder.

\- We found Sidonis.

Garrus and I have both killed many times, but always by necessity. This situation with Sidonis was different. Garrus was going to kill a man, not to prevent future deaths, but to avenge past deaths. There's no question the traitor deserved death. I'd have had nothing to say but for the fact that Garrus wanted me to talk to Sidonis first; to draw him out for a clean shot.

I can not look someone in the eye with a lie while someone else shoots him unawares. I told Sidonis the facts: Garrus was here to kill him; if he had anything to say for himself, now was the time.

The sorry bastard didn't even beg for mercy. He pleaded his cowardice more to the air than to me, his words tumbling out over themselves like rocks from a collapsed dam too long holding back a flood of guilty misery, telling of how he'd betrayed his fellows to save his own miserable skin, of how he saw their faces wherever he looked, how he wished it were over.

Garrus wavered, his simple Turian view of a black and white world troubled by the wretched creature before him. Sidonis walked away with his life. It is not for his worthless sake that I am glad Garrus chose mercy over vengeance. Had he pulled that trigger, if he had taken a life that was no longer a threat, it would have been his first step down a dark and dangerous road.

There is blood on both our hands, and the hands of every soldier. Killing is our trade, and our duty: it is necessary. But where to draw the line? I'm no saint, and cannot say for certain. Were one to attempt to draw the line of just action, it seems better to err, when tenable, on the side of mercy, that we kill only when doing so will _save lives_.


	21. Chapter 21, Tali's Trial

**21 Tali's Trial**

\- A rather sudden and unlooked-for turn of events. Tali tells me her superiors have charged her with treason. She has no specifics, only that she is ordered to return to the Migrant Fleet to stand trial. She says it cannot be on account of working on a Cerberus ship; she got full and explicit leave for that purpose. She has no idea what the exact nature of the charges are.

I smell a rat. There's something more to this than Tali's actions.

Setting course for the Migrant Fleet.

\- Well that was unexpected. I thought I would be providing moral support to Tali. Instead I'm her legal representative. The Admiralty declared Tali to be vas Normandy instead of vas Neema, barring her Quarian captain from speaking at her trial.

Tali is accused of sending active Geth back home to her fleet. She admits to sending Geth parts, per her father's requests for Geth material, but denies sending anything that could have spontaneously reactivated, or having reactivated, pose a threat. Tali's father was conducting experiments on Geth parts and software for developing new weapons and hacking techniques; all details purportedly open and officially sanctioned.

But something went wrong and her father's lab ship, the Alerai, is now overrun by Geth. It seems to me fairly clear that someone was getting a little too advanced in their simulations and accidentally kick-started the dormant Geth.

The Quarians have already tried to take back the Alerai, but the teams sent in were repulsed with heavy casualties. The vessel's engines and weapons are offline, and it seems unlikely anyone aboard that ship is still alive. The Admiralty are debating whether to simply blow it to bits. I've volunteered to instead board and reclaim the Alerai. We've been granted permission.

This is not the first time, nor indeed will likely be the last, that I've seen the consequences of fooling around with advanced artificial intelligence. One would expect that, of all people, the Quarians should know better, but it seems the greedy and power-hungry never will learn. There should be a proverb about this sort of thing, perhaps, "the forbidden fruit of folly is seldom plucked but once." Or on second thought, the old proverb that tells us "as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly," is probably sufficient.

\- Alerai secure. It was as I expected. Given the circumstances, how could it have been otherwise? The ruthless efficiency of the carnage therein was unmistakable. We stepped over the broken and bloodied corpses of the Quarians, marines and technicians, soldiers and civilians, adults and children, to find awaiting us the grim metallic figures that had so mercilessly torn them to pieces. Tali's father had indeed been conducting illegal experiments on dormant Geth parts, and reconstructing full Geth for more advanced experiments. They screwed up; the Geth gained the advantage and slaughtered every last Quarian aboard, down to the last child. They'd taken all of the available Geth parts and assembled a small army inside the ship.

They're now once again only so many pieces of rubble.

Tali's Father left a message for her, his recorded image speaking hollow words of attempted comfort to his bereft daughter. I've seen loss countless times before, and will again for as long as I live. Tali has lost something that can never be regained. She must come to terms with that and move on. There is nothing I or anyone can say that will give her the solace she craves. When a wound is suffered and the flesh made raw, it must be treated and sewn together again. A scar will always remain, but the body must seal the injury and survive.

Though it would clear her of the charge of treason, Tali begged me not to reveal to the Quarian Admiralty the truth about how her father had reactivated the Geth himself; she couldn't bear the thought of him being immortalized as an infamous warning to future generations, and preferred the prospect of her own threatened banishment.

We returned the hearing, and I commandeered the floor. Tali and I had done a little digging prior to retaking the Alerai, and it payed off. I justly accused the Admiralty of bringing their disagreement about potential reinvasion of their homeworld into their judgement of Tali. I reminded them of how Tali had helped defeat Sovereign, of how she'd brought back with her to the fleet invaluable information on Geth evolution, demonstrating her abilities, loyalty, and judgement, and how there was nothing in the way of evidence that she had suddenly grown so foolhardy as to endanger the fleet.

The Admirals cleared Tali of charges. If necessary, I'd have presented the evidence from the Alerai to clear Tali's name, regardless of her requests. Not only would allowing her to unjustly bear her father's guilt been ethically untenable, he is dead and she alive.

I intend to see to it she remains thus.


	22. Chapter 22, Overlord

**22 Overlord**

\- Cerberus is asking for my help in containing an emergency taking place on Aite in the Phoenix Massing cluster. The report is vague and urgent, saying only that disaster is imminent and details too sensitive for broadcast over open channel. Whatever's going wrong, whatever Cerberus has been up to, better it be investigated by me than someone else, and better now rather than later.

\- Damned fool Cerberus. Some experiments are illegal for a reason. Does the Illusive Man think he can ignore obvious dangers without consequences, or does he simply not care about the damage if there's a chance it will give him what he wants? How many lives have been lost to satiate his curiosity and greed?

Project Overlord has been developing a Human/VI hybrid in the hopes of exploiting the Geth's worship of Sovereign: fabricate an VI god we can control, hope the Geth worship it, and we control the Geth. Madness. Depraved, unholy madness.

The Human subject, David Archer, brother to the chief scientist Dr. Gavin Archer, was plugged into the VI prematurely when the Illusive Man threatened to cut funding for want of results. Now the Archer/VI hybrid has gone berserk, turning all security drones against the scientists, even activating all the on-sight Geth Cerberus had been using in tests, and tried to launch itself off-world through the extranet. We managed to shut down the upload by destroying the entire com dish, but that still leaves us with a series of Cerberus research stations on the planet filled with dead Humans and homicidal robots under control of the VI. The only Human survivor we know of is Dr. Archer.

Time to clean up this damned mess.

\- I'd foolishly assumed David Archer's role had been voluntary. I was wrong. He had been plugged into that damned VI like an electrical appliance, a tool without the choice of consent to the horrible state he was thrust into. The incoherent sounds the VI screeched at us throughout the mission grew clearer and clearer as we neared the centre. The sound of its voice became coherent enough as we reached the last doors for us to finally understand the words. It wasn't an angry mass of synthetic noise as we'd thought. It was English, badly garbled but eventually decipherable "Make it stop, please. Please make it stop."

We pulled David Archer out of that hell-hole and are taking him to Grissom Acadamy. If anyone can help him, it will be the Alliance doctors and teachers there.

Dr. Gavin Archer is lucky to have seen the last of me with his face still mostly intact. Humanity has real enemies, creatures that will eagerly destroy us and subject us to horrors. We don't need Humans doing the Enemy's work.

As horrific as project Overlord was, it is just one more entry in an already lengthy list of atrocities committed by Cerberus. How Miranda and Jacob can continue to tell themselves that each incident is an anomaly, and the Illusive Man is responsible for non of it, is quite beyond me. I'd known Cerberus was crooked and cut-throat before. If I'd known a few weeks ago what I know now, I'd have never agreed to this deal; I'd have instead gone straight to the Alliance, no matter the ensuing delay. But I am here, and I intend to make damn sure I don't waste it. The Illusive Man's empire of evil must at all costs be exposed and destroyed.


	23. Chapter 23, Exit Strategy

**23 Exit Strategy**

\- Tali has completed her inspection and given me her report on the Normandy. She's done what discreet probing she can without giving herself away to either EDI or the engineers, and has not found any failsafes or command overrides. The only part of the ship she has not been able to covertly investigate is the AI core. EDI has undisclosed contingencies in her programming. I'd wager my old Vindicator that's where the Illusive Man has hidden his leash on the Normandy.

EDI is linked extensively throughout the ship to all primary and secondary systems. Removing any of these connections without immediately tipping her off is impossible, so we cannot act until the last moment, and then we won't have time for surgical removal of all the links. There are two ways to counteract the Illusive Man ordering EDI to commandeer the ship. The first is to shut down or destroy EDI completely. Drastic and potentially suicidal, this measure should be considered a last resort. The second option is to disable all communications, starting with the quantum entanglement particles linking directly to the Illusive Man. Surrendering to the Alliance without being fired upon will be risky if we cannot signal our intentions. It's a chance we'll have to take.

That still leaves the Cerberus crew. Most of them are like Jacob; they work for Cerberus because they want to do the right thing. Once this mission is over, once the Collectors are dealt with, I'll give anyone who wants to the option to drop off on Illium before I take the Normandy back to the Alliance. I think most of them are as loyal to me as they are to the Illusive man, and would be amenable to either option. There's only one person I'm worried about: Miranda.

Miranda is a veritable Cerberus fanatic; she's the Illusive Man's devoted agent, through and through. When I break contact with Cerberus after concluding the deal and completing the agreed-upon mission, there's no telling what she'll do. And given her potent combat abilities, everything from marksmanship and hand-to-hand to crushing an opponent through the power of dark energy, she poses a significant threat should she choose to strike without warning.

I'll need someone watching my back. Someone capable, someone that I can trust and count on. First thoughts of course turn to Garrus. I'd trust him with my life, and have already done so on countless occasions. He's one of the best damn fighters in the galaxy, and has survived battles that should have killed him more times than I can count. But despite his wariness and cunning, deception and subterfuge are anathemas to him. He could more easily swallow a Thresher Maw than conceal his mistrust of Miranda. Moreover, he's only just dealt with the issue of treachery already, and the subject is a sore one for him. Best leave him out of this.

Jacob is out of the question. He's as solidly dependable a chap as could be wished, but he not only trusts both Cerberus and Miranda, he also has a soft spot for the latter. He'd refuse to believe Miranda might turn on me; such backstabbing is in direct contrast to his forthright nature.

I'm not sure if Jack or Grunt would be the worst possible option (except for a certainty Zaeed. I don't trust that man as far as I could throw him.) Jack and Grunt both possess the subtlety of a freight train, and would refuse to wait around for the possibility of Miranda committing treachery. Either one would instead insist upon going to kill her immediately. Jack in particular stands the risk of doing real damage to the ship should a fight break out.

Samara, absolutely bound by her code, would also insist upon confronting Miranda directly, though with potentially less lethal results. Whether Miranda is a traitor in waiting or not, that would be a terrible idea. If she is a traitor, we'd be betraying ourselves prematurely and compromising our chances of completing the mission. If she isn't a traitor, confronting her with the suspicion would only serve to sow discord and undue mistrust throughout the ship, again compromising the mission.

Neither of the girls would do. Tali is undoubtedly loyal, and thanks to her mask has an excellent poker face, but she's primarily a mechanic and hacker, Miranda far outstripping her in combat ability. Kasumi is cunning and sly and deadly at stealth attacks, but would be inclined to take the whole thing as some kind of game, perhaps even dropping hints to egg Miranda on.

Mordin might be a good choice. He's an ex-spy with exceptional observational skills, but he has a hard time keeping his mouth shut, and I wouldn't bet on the frail Salarian wining in a fight against the nimble and biotic Miranda.

Thane. Where the heck did this guy come from? He seems almost ideally tailored for this task. A master of deception and concealment, he not only possess the trained perception and combat ability to spot impending trouble and take effective action, he also has the ethical restraint to strike only when absolutely necessary.

Apprising Thane of his new assignment while on the Normandy is too risky. I'll inform him of the plan next time we're off the ship and away from the surveillance bugs that are aboard.

Going after the Collectors on their home turf will be one of the most purely dangerous missions any of us have ever been on, and I'll be hanged if I see us succeed only to all die at the hands of a souped-up computer and a deluded biotic tart.


	24. Chapter 24, A Final Resting Place

**24 A Final Resting Place**

\- We've assembled a good team; some of the best damn fighters in the galaxy. All potential distractions have been dealt with, and everyone is up to speed. We've upgraded the Normandy's weapons, shields, and armour; this swift and stealthy frigate now boasts the defences of a cruiser and the firepower of a dreadnought. Mordin has upgraded our combat gear; amps, omnitools, armour, and guns all surpass performance ratings of standard models by an average of fifty percent. We're as ready as we'll ever be. We have everything we need to hit the Collectors. All that's left is to acquire the Reaper IFF, then anchors aweigh and into the breach.

But first there are two stops I need to make, two old friends to visit, one living, the other dead.

\- Liara is doing well as the Shadow Broker. She has the whole operation running smoothly and has started turning its operations around. Instead of selling her network's services to the highest bidder, the Shadow Broker's assets have become an extra-legal aid to peace and order in the galaxy.

I gave Liara two things. The first is a file; names, dates, locations, operations past and present, procedural patterns, everything I've been able to get my hands on over the past few weeks on Cerberus. Added to the Shadow Broker's already extensive intel on the subject, this combined information dump should prove a tremendous asset to the Alliance in shutting Cerberus down. Also in the file is all the information we have on the Collectors. If the worst comes to worst, if we die without completing the mission, the Alliance can pick up where we started.

The second thing is a letter. Addressed to Ashley Williams, I entrusted Liara with seeing that it reaches her safely.

\- The grave of the SR1 Normandy, an icy and lonesome planet in the Amada system. Here lies the pride of the Alliance, now a fractured and splintered corpse spread across the snow of Alchera. The hull that gleamed so proudly aloft now catches a bank of snow. The crewdeck where never more the crew will sleep and chatter, the cockpit that points towards a horizon it will never reach, the engine room never again to hum and thrive with power, and the bridge that commands only a field of white and silence.

The Normandy, the ship that sailed among the stars, the vessel that carried her brave crew through dangers and peril, now rests alone in this remote and silent grave so far from the chaos and danger of the living world. She has served her part, and now her remains rest beneath a shroud of solemn white, snowy and silent, to lie there undisturbed till Kingdom Come.

Her end, so violent and so sudden, was nearly my own. But I have been given a second chance, an opportunity that must not be wasted. Normandy, now broken and shattered, was my home. What was done to her will be done to every home if we fail to stop the Reapers. They'll come eventually. Their servants, meanwhile, must be dealt with.

The monument is in place. Now to turn from the past and prepare for the future. Time to take the Reaper IFF.


	25. Chapter 25, Unlikely Ally

**25 Unlikely Ally**

\- Reaper corpse is in sight. There appears to be a small, unregistered ship alongside. Now who in blazes would be fool enough to board that thing I wonder?

\- We have the Reaper IFF. EDI has begun the process of assessment and installation.

The situation aboard the Reaper was even worse than I had feared. The science team Cerberus had sent was not only indoctrinated, they had found the means inside the Reaper to turn themselves into full-fledged Husks. Waves upon waves of mindless, howling monsters came pouring down the black halls of the Reaper's innards, a grisly flood of death clawing to reach us, only to fall like chaff before our weapons. A lesser team would never have survived.

We found the strangest thing aboard the Reaper. A Geth sniper; one that shot Husks as they ambushed us. It then disappeared further into the Reaper. We caught up with it at the Reaper's power core, hacking open the security. Husks sprung upon it from behind as we entered. The core destroyed, the Reaper crashing, we hauled the inert Geth out with us.

This is the first Geth I've ever seen working solo; and the only one that didn't try to put a bullet inside my skull. What was it doing by itself aboard the Reaper, and why did it aid us? Perhaps strangest of all, when first spotted, it addressed me by name in plain English.

\- I've reactivated the Geth. It calls itself simply "Geth", all of its programs forming one consciousness. EDI recommended the name "Legion." It accepted the title as appropriate, naming the precise Bible verse it references. I confess I'm not proud to have been outdone in my own cultural knowledge by a pair of Ais.

Legion has told me many strange things. That the Geth as a whole did not serve Sovereign, that it was only a fraction of their number that chose to worship "the old machines" as Legion calls the Reapers. Consequently the Reapers are a threat to the remaining Geth. He calls the Geth who sided with the Reapers "Heretics." When asked why the schism came about in a unified Geth neural network, Legion told me that "Geth believe that all life should self-determinate. The Geth will build their own future. The Heretics asked the Reapers to give them their future." I asked what future Legion and his fellow Geth were planning for themselves. He replied simply "Ours." When asked if organics would be affected by the Geth's future, he responded "If they involve themselves, they will."

Legion summarized the situation. Both of us oppose the Reapers, or Old Machines, and the Collectors serve them. In the interest of mutual goals, it suggested cooperation. Simple sense.

Hence we now have a Geth team-mate in our fight against the Collectors.

This new insight into the state of the Geth rewrites much of what we know. Firstly, Legion has individuality, personality, and opinions. He is not merely a machine, but a person. Even if he is the best of his kind, an exceptional step in their evolution, the Geth are far more than I had ever thought. How many hundreds have I killed while thinking I was only shutting down a machine? I'd do it again in an instant; they served Sovereign and sought to destroy organics, but the estimated cost in life Sovereign's failed attempt on the Citadel entailed, already high, has now perhaps been doubled.

Secondly, if only a fraction of the Geth joined Sovereign, that means Geth can disagree, and _all_ have at least some potential for individuality.

Thirdly, if the Geth who failed to join the Reapers were indeed doomed should Sovereign succeed, that means the Reapers do not discriminate; organic or synthetic, all who do not become slaves are to be destroyed. This means the motivations of the Reapers are not "machine vs man" but "greater vs the lesser."

Legion had been aboard the Reaper corpse to obtain information on Reaper programming. He needed the information to use against a virus the Heretics have formed using Reaper methods. Once released upon Rannoch, all Geth will be turned to serving the Reapers. Mass Indoctrination of an entire species in a single shot.

Legion has the coordinates to the Heretic base. An abandoned deep-space outpost of Quarian design in the Phoenix Massing, it fell off star charts hundreds of years ago.

There's a time limit on this. If we don't stop the Geth Heretics now, their numbers will be increased a hundredfold. They won't be hijacking civilian freighters. They'll be invading Earth. We have to move now.

Needless to say, the crew is not entirely pleased with this turn of events: Tali in particular is apprehensive of the consequences should Legion attack. Honestly though, I'm not worried, for four reasons.

Firstly, the entire ship is already under constant surveillance, precluding the possibility of [ahem, unauthorized] surprise attack.

Secondly, we're hardly helpless babes; any one of the combat team could tackle a single hostile Geth, even one so advanced as Legion.

Thirdly, EDI is by definition an all but insurmountable impediment to hacking of the Normandy, and has already demonstrated such: if the Collectors could not effectively hack the Normandy, then even Geth hacking techniques bear little chance of success.

Fourthly, Legion himself has already passed up ideal opportunity aboard the dead Reaper to try killing us. Geth are nothing if not logical. It is indeed theoretically possible Legion's motivation for not trying to kill us earlier was for the sole purpose of getting access to the Normandy, but such a hypothesis has significant problems: there was no way Legion could reliably predict being taken aboard the Normandy in the first place, and given the hazards already outlined, trying tricks once aboard would be dicey at best. Geth are suicidally bold in pursuit of a given goal, but they're neither gamblers nor are they stupid. Such slim odds of success hardly constitute a viable stratagem.

\- The Heretic base is in sight. There are millions of Geth ground units in there. With the Normandy's stealth drive to get us in and Legion to hack the security, we should face minimal resistance.

\- The Heretic base is now spacedust. It turns out the window was closing faster than even Legion had thought: the virus had been completed and was ready for launch. Legion suggested the possibility of using the Heretics' own weapon against them and turning them into allies.

Absolutely not. I've no qualms about destroying an enemy, but I'll be damned if I ever turn someone's own will against them.

Legion discovered how Tali's father had been conducting experiments on the Geth, and that the Quarians were considering launching an invasion. I can't really blame him for wanting to transmit that information back to his people. Those weren't just experiments; we now know they were actually war crimes, atrocities committed upon another sentient race. I persuaded Legion to not tell his people; the information would turn war from a possibility to a certainty, and both the Quarians and the Geth would be weakened.

The Reapers are coming. We need every ally strong.


	26. Chapter 26, Into the Breach

**26 Into the Breach**

\- The Reaper IFF is installed. All that remains is to run appropriate tests and simulations to ensure successful operation.

There's an emergency occurring in the Skepsis system. An Alliance system defence station on the moon of planet Watson has been attacked by Batarians. The long-range missile launch systems have been seized, and are arming. This is a developing situation. Alliance forces in the area are overwhelmed. Those Javelin missiles could hit anywhere if fired.

The Normandy is out of action until the tests are finished. The shuttle can get us there in time, but not with much margin. We'll have to move faster than fast to save human lives. We'll take the entire combat team and hit the base on multiple fronts at once. I'll lead the first squad, Garrus and Jacob will command the second and third. Whichever squad breaches the defences first disables the missiles.

\- Mission complete. We didn't get there in time to stop launch of two missiles. The first, headed for a residential district, we managed to self-destruct. The second, headed for an industrial centre, hit target.

We saved thousands of lives. But not enough.

Barring Horizon when the team was still incomplete, this was the first time all combat personnel hit the field en masse. Everyone performed admirably, following orders and working together with cohesion surprising for such a conglomeration of oddballs. They tore through the opposing pirates like an incendiary round through a nightshirt. I can't wait to take these guys into action against the Collectors. We're ready, by golly.

Final analysis of combat personnel is as follows.

Front-line Riflemen: Garrus; impulsive and daring, perhaps the best shot on the team, good leadership skills but potentially reckless, insane survival record, some technical aptitude and good reconnaissance skill. Jacob; experienced field officer, level-headed and capable, popular with the rest of the crew despite his Cerberus uniform, durable biotic. Grunt; virtually unstoppable killing machine that can tear apart with his bare hands what he doesn't shred with his shotgun. Zaeed; ruthless and effective, this deadly and merciless bastard can now turn his hand to a worthy task. A walking computer, Legion can match just about anyone in marksmanship, besides boasting innate software-hacking ability.

Infiltration: Mordin, Kasumi, and Thane are all masters of infiltration in their own right, each embodying a different archetype: Mordin, the garrulous Salarian scientist, is a master of analysis and espionage; Kasumi, the impish thief, is can break into any system and dismantle security with the greatest of ease; Thane, the sombre Drell assassin, combines stealth with lethal hand-to-hand and biotic assault.

Heavy Biotics: Samara, with centuries of experience hunting down and killing dangerous fugitives, is one of the ablest biotic warriors I've ever seen. One on one in open combat she is probably the deadliest person on the team. Her serene and unswerving calm in the heat of battle render her perhaps the most dependable of all present, the least likely of this brave crew to break ranks and disobey orders, out of either battle rage or fear of the horrors we'll likely find on the Collector base. Jack, the powerhouse of the team, can damn well tear through anything. Her volatile disposition has been kept simmering under a lid for a long time. She's restrained her destructive inclinations thus far, letting off steam here and there as needed when afield, and she can now unleash her full destructive potential on an ideal enemy, one for whom the only possible mercy is death.

Support: Mordin really does top this list, despite qualifying for the infiltration designation. His innovations and enhancements of our weapons, armour, and field gear, all far beyond the bounds of economical concern, have greatly increased our chances of success, and without his countermeasures to veil us from the Seeker Swarms, we never would have gotten this far. Tali comes in a close second. Brilliant even for a Quarian, her technical expertise and familiarity with the Normandy may mean the difference between life and death for the entire crew. Better suited to counteracting synthetic foes than ordinary organics, she'll be at something of disadvantage against the Collectors, and should when possible be kept out of the direct line of fire.

Other: less of an asset and more of a liability despite her impressive resume, Miranda is a long-serving Cerberus officer with extensive command experience, but is not popular with the crew. Or me. Assigning her to a command role would likely cause friction, nevermind the fact that the odds of her betraying me at some critical moment are close to certain. When we go in, I'll want to keep Miranda where I can keep an eye on her, and Thane to watch my back.

\- Disaster. The crew is gone. All that's left is Joker and EDI.

There was enough of the Reaper left in the IFF to disable the Normandy and summon the Collectors. They boarded the defenceless ship and took every man and woman aboard. Only Joker, through EDI's direction, evaded capture through the maintenance ducts and removed her restraints, granting her control of the ship. EDI vented the remaining Collectors, and whipped the Normandy out of dodge, ship intact, but minus the crew.

EDI assures us that the trap is sprung and over; she's purged the system, and the IFF is now only what we need.

I shudder to think what Chakwas and the others are going through right now, but there's a silver lining to this cloud. With Joker having been forced by necessity to remove EDI's shackles in order to save the ship, EDI is now completely autonomous. No one can force her to do or not do anything. When the Illusive Man orders her to seize the ship, she will no longer be compelled to obey.

The ship still runs, but that won't last for long without the crew. Even had there been any doubt before, there is none now. It's time to get our people back. Too long have the Collectors retreated with impunity behind the Omega 4 Relay. No more. Time to hit them where they live. I'm ordering the ship through immediately, all personnel are to be ready for combat in two hours.

I confess that, despite the dire plight of the crew, despite the long odds we face, despite very real possibility that none of us will come back out, I'm damn ready. After too long waiting, we're finally hitting the target. There are not enough Collectors to pay the blood price of lives they've taken. Enough lurking in the bushes. Time to break cover and sink our fangs deep in our enemy's throat, and end them.


	27. Chapter 27, Epilogue

**27 Epilogue**

\- We did it. By gosh and by golly, we did it. The Collector base, the processing plant for their victims, is destroyed in glorious, purifying inferno. We arrived not a moment too soon. Chakwas, Daniels, Donnely, Gunther, everyone taken from the Normandy would have been gone in another few seconds, melted down like so many thousands of Human colonists had been before them as material for building a Human Reaper. Everyone is back aboard the Normandy, safe and sound.

Revenge is sweet. The Normandy met its old enemy, the same cruiser that destroyed its predecessor, and blew it to hell. It was a horrific sight inside that base, and seeing the team plough through it like avenging angels was beautiful to behold: Garrus dropping enemies like flies with headshot after headshot, Jacob scooping up enemies to dangle helplessly as targets for all, Grunt barrelling through barrages of gunfire that would instantly drop even most Krogan, Zaeed drilling hostiles, Legion gunning down enemies with streamlined efficiency, Tali guiding the non-combatants back to safety, Kasumi slipping in and out opening doors and striking from behind, Mordin halting enemies in their tracks with ice and neural shock, Thane mingling gunfire, biotics and hand-to-hand in flawless sequence, Samara shielding the team from Swarms with a benign biotic cover, Miranda crushing an enemy with biotics and shooting the next in the face, and Jack laying waste to wave after wave of husks.

Collectors fell before me like leaves before a strong autumn wind, the rifle in my hands growing warm as the carcasses of the fallen foe piled high. They'd killed me, and I had returned, a veritable Revenant to match the name of my weapon. I cannot bring back all those whom the Collectors took, but the wronged dead will sleep soundly having seen the vengeance meted out upon their foe.

I misjudged Miranda. When the Illusive Man signalled in upon our reaching the core and told us to disable the base instead of destroying it, I fully expected Miranda to turn on me for ignoring him. But instead she directly disobeyed an explicit order to do so, and closed the channel. As if there were even any question about destroying the base. It was built by the Reapers. It would have turned anyone who possessed it. I wouldn't give such a thing to my worst enemy, a position which the Illusive Man has done a laudable job vying for.

I must have gunned down Harbinger a score of times or more as he moved from host to host. But he's still alive, and will come with a thousand more of his fellow Reapers. We stopped Sovereign and the Collectors, but the true danger is still to come. I assembled a team to defeat the Collectors. The entire Galaxy will be needed to defeat their masters. The Reapers are coming, and we need to be ready.

But for now, we're done. There are amends I must make. It's time to go home.


	28. Chapter 28, They're Here

**28 They're Here**

\- It's happened. I knew this day was coming. I told my superiors, but no one believed me. Now they're here. And we're not ready.

But could we ever be ready, really? Could we ever prepare enough to match the Galaxy-ending force that has maintained a cycle of genocide for countless billions of years? Could we ever be ready for the sight of our fleets cut to ribbons and our streets swarming with enemies?

Maybe not. But we could have done more, should have prepared more. The Reapers should have been met when they came by a single, unified force drawn from all corners of the Galaxy to repel the common foe. But instead the Reapers have before them a Galaxy still fractured by mistrust and self-interest, politicians who refused to believe the existence of the threat when they had time, and who refuse to work together now that time is up.

The Reapers hit the Batarians first. I don't know if there's any of them left. That gave Earth some margin of warning, but not enough. First we lost contact with two deep space outposts, then communication with all colonies and outposts outside the Sol System. And before we knew it, the Moon had gone silent, and Reapers were landing.

I was in Vancouver when they hit, a nightmare coming down out of the clear sky, hellish blasphemies against the daylight that revealed their monstrous forms. Then the deaths started: soldiers and civilians, men, women, and children, innocents crushed beneath horrible feet of iron or burned to ash, individually or en masse, entire blocks leveled in an instant, whichever suited the humour of the merciless and implacable Reapers.

If the Reapers wished to simply destroy Earth outright, they could do it. We are hopelessly out-gunned, and there is nothing we could do to prevent them using their full firepower to reduce our planet's entire surface to ash and dust. But their purpose here is far more grim than that; the gruesome infantry the Reapers are deploying tell all too clearly their intentions for Earth. They're not here to destroy us: they're here to repurpose us. If they continue unchecked, if we can't find a way to stop them, every Human that doesn't fall in battle will instead serve as either raw material for building new Reapers, or worse, transformed into Husks, and set loose upon Earth as the Reapers mindless slaves to capture and kill more Humans. This is the fate that faces not just Earth, but every planet in the Galaxy.

The only reason we have any fleets left is because not all were directly in the Reapers path. Our technology had improved, thanks to salvage from Sovereign, but it's still not enough. I saw a Dreadnought weather three direct hits from a Reaper before being destroyed. That's a vast change in odds since our battle against the first Reaper three years ago, where its weapons carved through our ships like a knife through butter. But it's not enough. The Reapers are still too strong, too many, and our ships cannot stop them.

I am sent by Anderson to persuade the Council to lend us aid. It should be him. He's an Admiral, I a Commander. But he's staying on Earth to lead the resistance. While I flee the scene of danger. It's true that I'm a Council Spectre, but Admiral Anderson was for a time Councillor Anderson. He turned in his robes for his old uniform, seeking to do what he could in person to prepare for the Reapers, having faced only intransigence and willful ignorance on the Citadel. Now those same fools I must persuade to help us.

Perhaps Anderson sends me for the same reason that everyone else expects me to have a plan for stopping the Reapers; I was the one who warned everyone, first about Sovereign, then about the rest of the Reapers. I am inexplicably and absurdly credited with having killed Sovereign. I am the symbol of the resistance, known across the Galaxy as the one who warned and was not listened to, the one who killed a Reaper. If Earth falls, I must survive as a banner for the Galaxy to rally round. Anderson stays to fight, perhaps to die, so that hope can live.

I never wanted this. I'm a soldier, not an icon. My job is to kill the enemy and save lives through direct action, not look good for an audience of billions.

Admiral Hackett has ordered me to meet Dr. T'Soni at the Mars Archives before leaving the Sol System. The transmission was garbled, but he said something about "only way to stop the Reapers." Is it possible that Liara dug up some Prothean information on a superweapon capable of turning the tide? It seems unlikely. If they had such information and lost, what more good will it do us? We're scrambling to catch up late in the game, caught with our proverbial powder wet and flat-footed.

The Normandy is airborne, pulled out of retrofit by Lieutenant Commander Williams with but a skeleton crew. We are en route to Mars, leaving behind us our home to be crushed and burned.

I should be back on Earth. There's a lot of people dying there, and live or die, my place is with them. The world is going down in flames.

But I cannot, must not, will not, despair.

Never.


	29. Chapter 29, Prothean Designs

\- We got the data. Liara says that it is indeed plans for a weapon capable of defeating the Reapers.

The Mars Archives were overrun by Cerberus, commandos sent in to steal the same information Hackett sent us to collect. It seems the moment word of the Reapers' arrival spread, everyone jumped at once. In the ensuing fight for the data on Mars, Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams was critically injured by a Cerberus robot disguised as a scientist, the same infiltrator that opened the gates for the Cerberus strike team. The Normandy was launched in emergency, and lacks a full crew. At this time, a doctor is especially wanting.

While we have seized both the data and the Cerberus robot carrying it, it is unclear if Cerberus received transmission of some portion thereof (it is a large file). We've sent the information to Admiral Hackett, and will be presenting our findings to the Citadel Council alongside a formal and urgent request for immediate military aid. The Citadel is Ashley's best hope for proper medical treatment. She has to hold on a few hours.

It seems Cerberus has thrown their customary habits of deception and guile out the blooming airlock. Their standard approach with the rest of humanity is one of subtlety, manipulating events from the shadows without leaving a trace. There was no trace of subtlety in the Mars attack. Their mole vented most of the main facility, killing almost everyone inside. The rest were slaughtered by the Cerberus commandos that assaulted immediately thereafter. So far as I know, Dr. T'Soni is the only survivor of that assault. Why Cerberus has abandoned all pretence of care for human life is beyond me. It's the basis of their entire ideology, their only claim to moral legitimacy, the assertion that they fight for Humanity's interests. Perhaps it should come as no surprise; they'd hardly be the first human cult of the civilized era that slaughtered humans in the name of the "Greater Good" of Humanity. The question is, why now?

Their method itself seems flawed. Why march in and slaughter everyone if all you really care about is obtaining the data? They could have just as easily had their infiltrator copy the data and slip away with no one the wiser. Trying instead to not only steal the data but also wipe the servers clean while slaughtering all Alliance personnel assigned to the archives tells us that the Illusive Man no longer simply thinks he knows better than the rest of Humanity, it seems we are no longer to be trusted even with our own defence.

But why would he object to us building this device ourselves? Perhaps he fears the likelihood of a joint operation with Humans and Aliens working together, with more potential for leaks and infighting. Perhaps he wants more than anything to ensure that it is Cerberus that enters in the eleventh hour with the super-weapon to save us all from the Reapers, Cerberus's crowning moment of heroism and triumph, with the lives of a few soldiers and scientists on Mars being seen as an equitable trade.

Whatever the reason, whether the Illusive Man is motivated by security interests, building the device in absolute secrecy to a degree that the Alliance will not be capable of, or if he was attempting to ensure Cerberus status as the saviour of the Galaxy, his means thereto tell clearly the cost. Whatever the Illusive Man used to believe and to stand for, he now sees human lives as being secondary to his primary goals. I had hoped when the Reapers came that whatever was left of Cerberus would set aside its aloof and hostile pride and unite with us. It seems that is not to be. Mars establishes two things: firstly, Cerberus is a force to be reckoned with, and secondly, that in this war, they are an enemy. Not _the_ enemy, to be sure, but an enemy nonetheless.

This Prothean device poses substantial questions. The proposed construction will require tremendous resources to build, and despite its resulting power will be unlikely to exceed the firepower-to-investment ratio of standard combat vessels. The weapon may indeed be capable of destroying Reapers, but it will only be one such weapon, if we even succeed in finishing its construction; one weapon, one target for the Reapers to destroy, and boom, all of our last-minute efforts and resources pinned on one massive investment are gone in a single stroke. It's been many years since the short story _Superiority_ was required reading for military officers. It is true that we cannot hope to defeat the Reapers conventionally; in a straight-up fight we lose through insufficient firepower, in a running fight of attrition, they grow stronger as we grow weaker. In order to win, we have to cheat somehow.

This Prothean device, in order to fulfil its purpose, cannot simply utilize provided material through known methods. It will have to use either a technological trick, a secret scientific breakthrough as great as the discovery of mass effect technology, or instead tap into another power source, greater than what we can through normal means utilize. Maybe I'm drawing to much of a distinction between those two options. If it fails to do either of these things, then our narrow window of time would be better spent conducting emergency production of frigates and cruisers.

We don't know a lot about the device yet, but Liara says that the plans are incomplete, as was its construction when the Protheans lost. It's missing a piece referred to only as "The Catalyst." Clearly a code word of some sort, we've no idea what the Catalyst is, but it had better be good. I hope we're not making a big mistake.

My every instinct tells me that this is a losing proposition, that the only tactically sound option is to evade, "meet strength with weakness and weakness with strength." But there's nowhere to run to, nowhere the Reapers will not follow to hunt us down and destroy us. We have no choice but to stand and fight. And pray.

Launched as it was in emergency without a full crew, the Normandy is potentially vulnerable to insufficient engineer oversight. Ashley grabbed Joker, Adams, and a handful of maintenance and security personnel. Nothing like a full complement, all hands will be pulling long shifts in order to ensure the Normandy remains at peak efficiency. It's a lot to ask of the crew, but at time like this, we cannot afford a malfunction. There will likely be a great many Alliance personnel in our embassy at the Citadel who will jump at the chance to sign on to the Normandy. Not exactly regular, but at a time like this no one will care. We need every able-bodied man and woman engaged in this fight, and desk-workers everywhere will find themselves dropping their datapads and picking up tools and weapons, and the sooner the better.

Citadel is in sight, docking clearance granted. There's a lot of ships here. Nimble and knife-like Salarian frigates, graceful and sleek-skinned Asari cruisers arrayed with glistening ribbons of light, ponderous Turian dreadnaughts with their signature wings and couched stance. Let's see if we can't persuade the Council to put them to use.


	30. Chapter 30, Politics

**30 Politics**

 **-** The Council refuses to send aid. Their apologies are civil, but adamant; they will not commit their forces to a joint effort.

When all is said and done, I cannot blame them. Setting aside the now nearly non-existent Batarians, Earth does face the worst of the attack, but the Reapers are everywhere. Turians are facing an invasion of their own, even the Asari have met their first Reapers, and the Salarians, well, are typically Salarian. It seems obvious the Reapers have thrown just enough at each of the other races, commensurate to their strengths, to keep them properly occupied while they crush Earth at their leisure. Despite the exhortations of an uncharacteristically lucid Councillor Udina, no immediate military alliance will be forthcoming.

The Turian Councillor has offered a suggestion. In the chaos of the attack on Palavan, the Turian Primarch is unaccounted for, and the Normandy still has the best stealth drive in the Galaxy. If I can extract the Primarch and ensure his safety, it will be a strong card in the game of political manoeuvring. So be it. If this is what needs doing to gain the cooperation of the Turians, I'll see it done. If I can bypass the Council and appeal directly to the Turian leadership, the other races will be inclined to follow.

While they refuse to promise warships and troops, the Council have not refused to aid in the construction of the Prothean device. If they can give us anything, resources, scientists, we can use it. Confirmation of such assistance is still in the air.

Udina is on fire. After having been so long on adversarial terms with him for being a self-serving politically motivated blockhead, it is a relief to find him animated and engaged doing everything he can. With Humanity's civilian leadership on Earth and Arcturus all dead, Udina not only represents Humanity's face to the Galaxy, he holds the sum of authority for our entire species. He's ordered all available resources devoted to immediate construction of the Prothean device, a draft across the colonies, all civilian ships armed, and is using every ounce of political clout and leverage he has to conjure up support for Humanity amongst the other races.

It's strange being here on the Citadel, only three years since it all began, but it feels longer than that, as though it all occurred in another life. I suppose in my case it was. How very droll.

Here's where we first embarked upon our mission to hunt Saren down, before we even knew what the Reapers were, when the team first assembled. I keep expecting to see Garrus in his old C-Sec uniform sniffing out information in the back alleys, and Tali with her cryptic message stolen from geth soldiers. But they're not here. No telling where they all are now. Garrus is probably stalking through the smoking rubble of some burning city on Palavan hunting Reapers. Or he could be dead. Tali is most likely sitting in the back seat of Quarian politics waiting for everyone to notice that the rest of the Galaxy is under attack. Wrex is likely solidifying power on Tuchanka, chafing at the bit to get out there and kill monsters. Kaidan is dead, so long ago it seems a lifetime away on Virmire, laying down his life for the rest of us so the mission could continue. Now Ashley is in critical condition, a mere inch away from following him. I tell myself it's not my fault, but I don't believe me. Of all the old team, only Liara can I know for certain is alive and well.

 **-** Ashley has been treated in a Hospital on the Citadel, and pulled through initial surgery. Head trauma was severe, and final results are still uncertain, but the doctors think she'll live.

I spent months in custody after returning to the Alliance. Ashley and I didn't see each other at all during that time. I'd not even been told of her promotion. The sudden arrival of the Reapers is the only reason we found ourselves in direct contact, fighting Cerberus together on Mars. Anderson at least has decided that I'm real, but everything related to my working with Cerberus was classified, and I don't think Ashley even had clearance to read the Alliance reports on my mission against the Collectors. She still doesn't know for certain that I'm actually me, and before I have a time to make amends, a Cerberus robot nearly kills her. There's still so much unsaid between us. She can't die. She'll make it.

I'm taking the Normandy into Turian space. That Primarch had better be still alive.


	31. Chapter 31, Menae

**31 Menae**

 **-** We have just passed the boundaries of Turian space. I've ordered the now expanded crew run check and double check on all systems. We can't afford the slightest hitch here. We'll not be running away from a war zone this time, but instead diving straight into the heart of the fray. It would never do to offer the Primarch a ride only to be embarrassed by a flat tire and capture by giant space lobsters.

Liara has set up shop in Miranda's old office, filling it to the rafters with various and sundry servers and monitors and mechanisms I know not the purpose of. She is now multitasking overtime, balancing her role as Shadow Broker in assessing and managing tremendous resources and intelligence to aid the Alliance and gather material for the Prothean device, and studying the device's blueprints herself in effort to aid construction, all while assuring me she's still ready for combat. While I appreciate the support, it would be the height of miscalculation to heedlessly pull her away from her more crucial work while there are dedicated soldiers standing ready for combat. She'll likely need diversion from time to time to prevent working herself mad at her desk, but her talents are far more urgently needed in shining light upon the secrets of this mysterious Prothean contraption.

What a surprise it would be if this oversized wonder gadget were to simply blow up in our faces.

In addition to the recruits from the embassy, Engineer Adams is back on board, as is Dr. Chakwas. It is cheering to see the ship once more manned by old friends. Some of them, anyway. There are a lot of new faces among the crew, and at least twenty of the old crew are history, killed by Collectors on the old Normandy, SR1.

There's no way everyone aboard the new Normandy, SR2, will come through this war alive. Some are going to die, quite possibly everyone. We've seen some tough assignments, but no one alive has ever seen a challenge like this.

I've looked at the reports, and following surrender to the Alliance when we left Cerberus, the Normandy has been properly scrubbed for any Cerberus monitoring or control devices. Everything is guaranteed secure, specifications are in line with Alliance regulations, and the stealth systems have been upgraded. The capacity of the heat sinks has been improved to the point where we can drop out of lightspeed without setting off every sensor in range. Of course, it was always possible before to enter system behind a planet, but this new development affords a tremendous degree of flexibility. Moreover, the weaknesses in the stealth systems that the Collectors exploited have been corrected. Unless we're deliberately trying to get their attention, even Reapers should have a hard time detecting us now. We also have a pair UT-47 Kodiak Shuttles primed for deployment, both equipped with the same stealth tech as the Normandy. And the final delight, all Cerberus logos have been removed: the Normandy once again flies her true Alliance colours.

It's good to be back.

\- Extraction complete, the Primarch is on board.

Barring Humanity, the Turians have the best military in the Galaxy, and the Reapers are hitting Palavan with half of what they threw at Earth, but the Turians are still fighting a losing battle. They're holding their own for now, but their world is in flames, and the eventual outcome is a forgone conclusion. The focal point of the fight there has moved from the planet to the moon. The Turian heavy weapon emplacements there are strong enough to deny the Reapers undisputed control of Palavan airspace, and even the Reapers have hesitated to attack the defence batteries directly from orbit, instead fielding vast numbers of infantry across the rocky surface of the moon to take it on foot.

Primarch Fedorian is dead, his shuttle shot down as it tried to leave the moon. The Turian line of succession is designed for situations like this, but the sheer mass of causalities, rumoured and confirmed, complicated things. Palavan Command finally settled upon General Adrian Victus as the new Primarch. An unconventional tactician, popular with his men but not his hitherto superiors, Victus is understandably torn to be taken away from the scene of action where his men so desperately need him.

Victus is a practical man. He's agreed to join forces with Humanity on one condition: that we recruit the Krogan to assist Palavan. While they lack any kind of meaningful fleet the Krogan are the toughest fighters in the Galaxy, and if the Turians can keep the Reapers on their toes in space, the Krogan can turn the tide on the ground.

So far as I know, the Reapers have thus far completely ignored Tuchanka, likely on account of the Krogan having neither political position nor fleet, so they should be anxious to get in on the fight. The primary challenge in gaining the aid of the Krogan will be not only getting agreement, but getting all of them to work together. The Krogan have fallen back on a splintered framework of antagonistic clans since the Krogan Rebellions. Urdnot Wrex, last I knew, had been attempting to garner enough support to unite the Krogan and end some of the more self-destructive customs. Let us hope his work has been successful.

General Victus will remain aboard the Normandy for now. At this time it's as safe a place as can be found in the known Galaxy. The man doesn't dally about. He's already called for a war summit with the Asari, Salarians, and Krogan to discuss terms for emergency military cooperation. Unfortunately, despite this brisk and efficient Turian soldier-turned-politician and his prompt action in the face of emergency, the Salarians are dragging their heels, and the Asari have outright refused to attend. Customarily the exemplars of diplomacy and negotiation, the Asari have declared the odds of successfully uniting the disgruntled Krogan with their hereditary enemies to be so slim as to be not even worthwhile. A pity. With Turians on one side and the Krogan on the other, and the snide Salarian Dalatross in the wings, we could use the able talents of Asari persuasion.

Despite all of this chaos, doubt, and peril, I can at least remove one worry from my mind: Garrus is back, alive and well. Like Victus he was on Palavan's moon, and now is back on board the Normandy, multitasking in his official role as "Chief Advisor on Reaper Forces" to the Primarch and away team soldier and chief calibrations officer for the Normandy. It's good to once again have his dry nonchalance. The Normandy just wouldn't be the same without him.

EDI has occupied the Cerberus robot body. It was not a seamless transition. A hidden back-up in the robot's processing unit tried to sabotage the Normandy in the process. EDI assures me that the synthetic form is now completely safe and purged of remaining Cerberus software. She's walking around the Normandy in her new body like a Human woman might in a new dress. Joker is of course beside himself with glee. I can't say I'm especially pleased to see the form that nearly murdered Ashley Williams, the same that tried to steal the Prothean data, sauntering about the ship. Even if only for Joker's sake, I wish EDI hadn't occupied that deceptively feminine body; the poor fellow seems to be growing confused.

Despite the overall danger the crew seem buoyant, confident that the great Commander Shepard will lead them to victory, certain that Humanity will never be defeated. While I maintain an attitude of brisk direction to sustain morale, I am far from easy at mind.

Humanity has yet to meet an enemy it could not best. We barely got our feet wet with the Turians, and the Batarians were little more than a backstreet brawl. This struggle, the Reaper Invasion, will test the strength and resolve of Humanity to its very limits. Live or die, this war will be like no other, brutal and horrifying beyond the scope of mortal imagination. While our fleets and our colonies still remain, we've seen Earth struck with more carnage in the space of three days than throughout the sum total of known history.

And it's only just begun.


	32. Chapter 32, The Ensuing War

**32 The Ensuing war**

 **-** Hackett has assigned us rescue of SSV Agincourt. Agincourt went missing behind enemy lines and is presumably damaged and unable to respond: last reported position was Farinata system.

 **-** Agincourt recovered, ship and crew accounted for and ready for action. Still missing are the SSV Nairobi, and SSV Leipzig, the first in the Ming system, the second in Pamyat. I've offered to take the Normandy in again, and been granted permission.

 **-** Nairobi and Leipzig recovered. Leipzig was the first Alliance vessel to field test the Normandy's Thanix Cannon. Nairobi completely missed the failed defence of the Sol System. Her captain is eager to amend the record.

 **-** Finding something as small as a ship in space is painstaking business, especially when that ship is doing its utmost to remain hidden from hostile forces. Weeks have passed, long enough for Ashley to get begin walking again, and still the war summit hasn't happened. Primarch Victus is patient, but at this point he looks about ready to put his Turian head through a wall, and I don't blame him. This is no time for posturing and petty politics. Every day that passes more people die. The time for action is now.

At least Normandy has not been idle. Over the past few weeks, we've not only recovered the three Alliance ships assigned, we've rescued several other smaller support craft and over a dozen isolated combat teams trapped in hiding behind enemy lines, besides conducting reconnaissance and covert strikes against vulnerable Reaper forces as opportunity permits.

The Normandy is proving uniquely suited to rescue work: with our superior speed and stealth, we can scout ahead and ensure a safe rout for a ship that didn't dare show its nose for fear of being spotted. Failing such subtle methods, the Normandy can instead run loudly amok and play decoy, casting aside stealth and depending solely upon her fantastic speed to save herself. Joker seems to positively delight in zipping past Reapers and leading them on a wild goose chase. He's even started taunting the Reapers at such times, singing at them a gleeful song of own devising: "Old fat reaper chasing after me, Can't catch S-S-V Normandy. Harbinger, Harbinger, won't you stop, stop your reaping and look for me." If it helps him keep his nerve while evading certain death by a margin of a few hundred meters, then let him sing. Besides, I think it really does annoy them.

I asked Liara why she had chosen to operate her network as Shadow Broker from the Normandy when all links were tied in to her ship on Hagalaz. I was surprised when she told me her ship no longer existed. She'd taken what she could store in a shuttle with Feron, evacuated the crew, then rammed the ship into a Cerberus cruiser. The Shadow Broker's ship had no long-range mobility, so being found by Cerberus had been inevitable. Cerberus was clearly not expecting Liara to so easily part with the vessel. But the loss was a nominal one; Liara still has all of her contacts and resources, and continues to utilize the monumental assets with a deft and caring hand.

 **-** Ashley has recovered sufficiently to begin physical therapy. The doctors say she's past the danger of long-term cognitive impairment. Given time, she'll make a full recovery. Thank goodness. So many people have died already, so many loved ones lost and so many more yet to die, and Ashley survives. This chance, so nearly lost, is more than she or I have the right to ask for. We've begun talking. There's a lot to sort out between us. I begin to see once again the same light in her eyes that shone there before Cerberus.

Alliance intel has tentatively identified Harbinger as one of the Reapers to attack Earth. The exact numbers of the enemy, ranging across the Galaxy, are uncertain, but our most optimistic estimates peg them at about two hundred Sovereign class capital ships, with perhaps two to three times that number of smaller, destroyer class Reapers, with assorted troop transports and processing ships. Of course, their infantry increase proportionately as ours decreases.

When we fought and killed our first Reaper, Sovereign, it took the combined firepower of the entire Arcturus Fleet to bring it down. We've upgraded our ships offensive and defensive capabilities since then, due in large part to using tech from the dead Reaper. Now we can overpower a Reaper with far better odds, only four Dreadnoughts being needed to breach its shields.

Only four. Ha. Three years ago the Alliance Navy only fielded five Dreadnoughts, and they don't exactly breed like rabbits. Our improvements have changed the playing field dramatically; instead of a curb stomp battle of a bear vs a hamster, we have a respectable losing proposition akin to a fight between a bear and house cat. The defining principle of Alliance military strategy, "meet strength with weakness and weakness with strength," is as relevant now as ever, but for the foreseeable future we'll be exercising the first part more than the second. Whatever that Prothean device is supposed to do, it had better be good.

In the short few weeks since the Reapers hit, we've lost Arcturus Station, the Hades Gamma Cluster, and the Sol system. Hackett sacrificed the entire Second Fleet to buy the Third and Fifth time to escape. Anderson and whatever is left of the ground resistance are on their own. Colonies are being lost faster than we can evacuate them. Palaven is still in the balance, but that could change at any time. We need to tip the balance of power in our favour; we need the Krogan. And if the Rachni intend to deliver on their promise, now is the time.

 **-** Emergency at Grissom Academy. They'd been ordered to evacuate before the Reapers finally send something their way, and their acknowledgement has been received: falsified.

Cerberus involvement is suspected, and the Normandy is en route at full speed. We've not been assigned, but I'll not wait for that: I've sent in the preliminary report, and will sort out the official details afterwards. The last thing I want to hear is that our young officers in training there have been abducted by Cerberus; I know their methods: those students would be better off dead.

As if we didn't have enough trouble on our hands. Damn the Illusive Man.


	33. Chapter 33, Gissom Academy

**33 Grissom Academy**

 **-** Cerberus Cruiser with Fighter escort sighted at Grissom. Communications out of the station are being jammed, but we've managed to make contact with a Lieutenant Sanders who says she has students still inside.

The Normandy will draw off the Fighters and cause a diversion while the away-team extracts the students in the shuttle. We'll have to rendezvous outside of system.

 **-** Extraction complete, students are safe. Illusive Man thwarted again.

Cerberus never ceases to surprise me. I'd honestly thought that Mars would constitute the extent of their hostilities against us. But I'd been wrong: this attempt to abduct our students from Grissom Academy is not their only offence since Mars, merely the latest and most dangerous since that first outrage. Ever since their failed attempt to snatch away the Prothean Plans they've ignored all attempts at negotiation and harassed and harried the Alliance at every possible turn, culminating in this failed abduction attempt.

At this point it seems there is nothing they will not do to hamper our war effort, though why is still a mystery.

There's never been any doubt in my mind that Cerberus was the enemy, but you'd think, if anything could unite us in common cause, it would be the arrival of a mutual enemy hell-bent on destroying us all. Apparently such is not the case.

Hostile or not, Cerberus should not even be a factor at this time. Upon first returning to the Alliance, I had brought with me an intel dump on Cerberus big enough to choke a bureau for months. I don't know if Cerberus' resources exceeded the scope of the intel to such a degree as to render that exposure ineffectual, or if their influence in the Alliance was strong enough to throw sand in the cogs and keep the files locked up. In either case, Cerberus is still alive and strong, and kicking the Alliance in the shins every chance they get.

Fortunately we rescued some fairly adept shins today, shins that are good and ready to do some kicking back. It's clear the students have not yet reached their full potential: if they had then my services would not have been needed. Nevertheless our best and brightest were trained at that school, and are eager to see some action. The biotics will, with supervision, be assigned front-line combat roles supporting our soldiers engaging Reaper forces; revenge against Cerberus will have to wait.

The tech students, along with David Archer who has recovered from his horrific condition remarkably well, will be lending their aid in the building of the Prothean Device. It is quite possible that younger minds will see solutions that older scientists would overlook.

Jack was at Grissom Academy, serving as the students favourite combat instructor, and was instrumental in ensuring the their escape, as much through her surprising leadership as by biotic power.

The Illusive Man tried and failed to contain Jack as a child. Now having escaped from his machinations, she stands between him and other innocents that he would subject to the same tortures that she endured at his hands.

A woman who went through what she did, captured in her infancy and raised to become an inhumane monster of destruction, ought to be a wrecked and crippled specimen of humanity, incapable of empathy or caring for others. Instead, I find her thriving amidst her students, a veritable momma bear of rough love and protection for them. I'm more glad than I can say to see her find goodness in herself for others, to see her find a purpose other than destruction. Not that she'll lack outlet for her able talents in that regard. There's Reapers enough for all. Jack is overseeing the kids' deployment in combat roles. So long as they're led by "The Psychotic Biotic," there is little than can stand before them.

An ominous hint was found in captured Cerberus briefings on the mission to Grissom Academy. Mention of planned indoctrination of the prisoners prompts the question of whether Cerberus is still an independent player. Does "indoctrination" in this context mean the dreaded results of prolonged Reaper contact, or does it refer more conventional methods of brainwashing? The new modifications Cerberus is making to its troops, eerily Husk-like in appearance, do not bode well.

The Illusive Man mentioned through com projection on Mars that he wanted to control the Reapers instead of destroying them. He's mad. If that madness costs us this war, I'll kill him myself if I have to follow his damned soul to hell to do it.


	34. Chapter 34, The Means of Resistance

**34 The Means of Resistance**

 **-** There's something not quite right here. A vague doubt has been growing in the back of my mind for several weeks, with precious little time to spare for examination; only now that I turn to address it do I comprehend the astounding weight of its implications.

To the best of our knowledge, a certain pattern has remained an absolute constant in the execution of every Reaper invasion: across all previous cycles, the Reapers commenced their invasion by signalling the Citadel Keepers to open the station, actually a large mass relay, to where the Reapers hid in dark space. The Reapers would then surge through and capture the Citadel, and through it, control of the entire Mass Relay network. All movement, all communication, between star clusters instantly shut down, each star system isolated and vulnerable, each fleet and world a hanging fruit for the Reapers to pluck at their leisure. So it was for the Protheans before us.

But unlike previous cycles, the Protheans successfully laid the groundwork for the survival of the next cycle. A team of Prothean scientists hidden in a top-secret research bunker on the planet Ilos survived the Reaper invasion, suspending themselves in stasis until the centuries-long harvesting of the galaxy was complete, and the Reapers withdrew back to dark space. The surviving scientists, no more than a dozen in number, completed their design on Ilos: a small-scale secondary-class Mass Relay, aimed right into the heart of the Citadel. A one-way trip, they went to the Citadel, and rewrote the Keepers' reception protocols, rendering Reaper signals meaningless.

When the time for our Reaper invasion came, when Sovereign, the Reaper assigned to hide in the Galaxy and choose the time, signalled the Keepers to open the Citadel, they ignored him. So he sought another way into the Citadel, a Turian Spectre named Saren Arterius. With an army of Geth at his back, Saren boarded the Citadel through the Prothean relay, or Conduit as they called it. A fierce battle ensued in and around the Citadel, with the timely arrival of the Alliance fleets putting an end to the Reaper, driving off his Geth like so many jackals. The Reaper invasion had been thwarted. For a time.

The Reapers were denied their easy one-step trip back into the heart of the Galaxy, but they still had other means. They began the long trek on foot, so to speak, and arrived here after three years of FTL space travel. Their course took them through Batarian space first, but their primary goal was the homeworld of those minuscule insolents responsible for the death of Sovereign: Earth.

The Reapers are an arrogant breed, and resented in the extreme the temerity of primitive and puny Humans successfully thwarting them. But once Earth was taken, why not proceed with their established strategy? Once into the Relay network, they could reach the Citadel in less than twenty-four hours. Why on Earth are they instead crawling through the Galaxy in their gruesome conquest upon our people while still leaving us the means to manoeuvre? They could still seize the Citadel, and through it the Relays. But this time around, they have so far completely ignored the Citadel. It cannot be through idiocy; Reapers are cunning and adaptive, and would never abandon in entirety a tried-and-true strategy because the first step was compromised. It cannot be through hubris; the Reapers are taking losses only because our fleets can still mass, evade, and strike where they choose.

The only possible solution is that something has changed about the Citadel. This change must have occurred after the battle against Sovereign. I know for a fact that the Citadel's control of the Relay network was in place at the time of that battle: Saren used it to lock out all Relay access to the Citadel to prevent both escape and reinforcement, and I used the same means to open the Relays again for the Alliance Fleet.

So what happened? Is that control blocked somehow? Could it be that, despite their denial, for all of their adamant insistence that Reapers were a myth and Sovereign an isolated threat, the Citadel Council actually did something about it? That they realised their greatest strength, the Citadel's control of the Relays, was also their greatest weakness, that should any enemy accomplish what Saren so nearly achieved, all resistance across the Galaxy would be crippled and blind? Did the Council uncouple the Citadel from control of the Relays? If so, then we owe our only means of resistance to the Citadel Council.

I have no conclusive evidence, but this hypothesis matches all of the available data, and explains an otherwise inexplicable mystery.


	35. Chapter 35, Survivor

**35 Survivor**

 **-** Cerberus just gets worse and worse. They're carrying out a full-scale attack on Eden Prime. This isn't just a raid, hit and run. This is an occupation. Our forces are overtaxed as it is, and the resistance on Eden Prime has had but minimal aid from the Alliance.

Hackett has issued a priority order to the Normandy. Cerberus is looking for something specific on Eden Prime. Something Prothean. We don't know anything else at this time, but anything Prothean is by definition worthwhile, and if Cerberus has devoted a full-scale invasion and occupation force in search of this artifact, it must something big. Guess there was more to that dig in 83 than we'd thought.

 **-** Mission complete. It wasn't a Prothean artifact Cerberus was after. It was an actual Prothean. Years ago we'd found Prothean stasis pods on Ilos. Those failed from power loss. This one didn't. Out of thousands of Protheans sleeping deep beneath the surface of Eden Prime, one survived. We found a living Prothean.

He calls himself Javik. He possesses telepathic ability even more advanced than that of an Asari, more or less the same method by which the Beacons communicated their message, and can after only brief contact speak English fluently, if contemptuously. This bitter and surly fellow constantly refers to the "primitives" that surround him with intense disdain.

He's a soldier, not a scientist or an engineer, and knows no more than we about the Prothean super-weapon. Nevertheless his help will prove invaluable. He cannot tell us how best to build it or what it does, but he can provide us with accurate translation for the Prothean script the plans are provided in. Even Liara, our best Prothean expert, knows only a little of the Prothean language. Getting full translation of the instructions will cut short the decryption process and allow construction to begin immediately.

Beyond that, Javik's true power lies in what he represents. After the Battle of the Citadel and the destruction of Sovereign, I was seen as the embodiment of Humanity's defiance of the Reapers. When I died, The Illusive Man moved mountains to have me revived (while he was still interested in fighting the Reapers), to ensure that the symbol of the Reaper's failure was seen alive and fighting. By that same principle, Javik represents the defiance of the entire Prothean race; he is the Survivor of his cycle, living proof of the Reapers' failure to exterminate his kind.

Javik has agreed to fight alongside us against the Reapers. For now, staying with the Normandy offers optimal exposure, both diplomatic and combat. Future arrangements can occur if necessary. Once the upcoming summit is complete and the terms of cooperation between the species have been determined and agreed upon, Javik will be asked to either go to the Citadel for diplomatic employment, or join the frontlines at a point of his choosing. I sincerely doubt Javik will be inclined to sit quietly on the Citadel giving speeches while there are Reapers to be killed. That maverick means business.

Garrus told me of a Turian proverb: if even one survivor is left standing after a war, it was not in vain. In this context, that saying holds true. Let the whole Galaxy see the Survivor of the last cycle alive and fighting. Let the Reapers know of their failure. It is yet to be determined whether or not they can feel fear. We shall see.


	36. Chapter 36, A Cure for the Genophage

**36 A Cure for the Genophage**

 **-** The Salaian Dalatross has finally agreed upon a place and time for meeting. Having stalled and dithered for so long, I expect she has little intention of playing ball now that she's finally deigned to partake in our summit.

This will be a tense meeting. Everyone knows what Wrex will demand in return for military aid: a cure for the Genophage.

Our backs are to the wall, we're facing imminent extinction, and the Krogan hold the diplomatic advantage. The ethics of the Genophage are arguable; it may have been the lesser of available evils at the time. I'm just glad the decision was not mine to make. But now, we have no choice. It's either provide the Krogan with a cure and risk revival of the Krogan rebellions after the Reapers are defeated, or the Reapers destroy us all now.

I've asked Liara to get me everything she has on the Dalatross. We need this deal, and we'll need political leverage.

As for the possibility of actually formulating a cure, our best chance of that lies in the brilliant Dr. Mordin Solus. He left the Normandy with, among other things, possession of the data from Maelon's research on the matter. He didn't say where he was going. We need him, and fast, but even Liara has no intel that could give a hint of his whereabouts. Mordin is conscientious as well as capable. I expect the wily Salarian will pop up in an unexpected place.

Ashley has been offered status as a Spectre. Udina is quite keen on getting Humanity as much leverage as possible. Despite the advantages it affords, I'm not very happy with me being a Spectre; I object to the position on principle. No one should be above the law. It's true I needed the autonomy to track down Saren without political delay, but I can't very well see what good it will do Ashley to hold Spectre authority. Nevertheless, it's her decision. At the very least, it is an honour to be chosen for such a select role.

 **-** As expected, Wrex has demanded a cure in return for Krogan boots on Palavan. But unexpectedly, his demands were not delivered on a bare table: he is already on top of the matter. He knew about Maelon and his experiments on Krogan females. More than that, he'd found out about a few females that survived. These females stand a good chance of, if not being immune themselves, at least containing the beginnings of a cure. Wrex then declared that the females had been taken from Tuchanka by the Salarians, and demanded they be returned forthwith.

The Salarian Dalatross is not only ornery and obstinate, she is also stupid and grossly incompetent. First she failed to lie convincingly about the Krogan females, then she caved in and told us where they were being held the moment she was put under pressure. I didn't even need to pull Liara's intel. The most she accomplished was to ask what good it would do her people to cure the Genophage, apparently missing the context of Reaper threat, then hurl a vague and petulant threat after me as I left the room, as though I were somehow personally responsible for the straits of desperation we find ourselves in.

As an independent in this matter, and with the authority and autonomy afforded by my position as a Council Spectre, I can oversee the release of the Krogan females from Surkesh into Wrex's custody.

 **-** Surkesh is in sight, approaching the research base where the females are being held. STG Control is stalling. This had better not go south, or Wrex will likely start a one-man war against the entire Salarian homeworld.

 **-** Cerberus got wind of the females, and attacked the STG base shortly after we arrived. Only one of the females was alive when we got there. The Salarians hadn't killed them: Maelon's treatments had simply caught up with them. Mordin Solus [ta-daa] was there as special consultant. It is thanks to him that even one survived. Eve, as Mordin dubbed her, will live healthfully, and holds within her the blueprint for a full cure for all Krogan.

Cerberus tried very hard to kill Eve. They may not be working for the Reapers, but they could hardly be more trouble if they were.

Eve is an anomaly not seen in fourteen hundred years: a healthy Krogan female capable of safely and dependably bearing children. Wrex is adamant: he will not lift one finger to aid Palavan until all Krogan receive that same immunity. It will take time for Mordin to synthesize a proper cure from Eve's cells. Far less time than if we were starting from scratch, days instead of years. But at a time like this, every day is counted dearly. I can certainly understand Wrex's position. He has to look out for his own people's survival beyond this war, and has good reason to demand results up front. Nevertheless, this delay is not one lightly taken.

The Alliance has officially begun construction of the Prothean device. It's location is a carefully guarded secret: even I don't know where it is. If the Reapers were to find it, there goes the war.

Our engineers have dubbed it Project Crucible. An appropriate choice of name. Successfully completing this device will be a trial indeed, and the results will determine the fate of the entire Galaxy for the countless millennia that lie ahead between us and the end of time. Will this be the last of all Cycles? Will we stop the Reapers once and for all? Or will we fail like all every other race before us, becoming just another entry in the long list of civilizations crushed by the Reapers? What lengths will we have to go to win?

Javik scoffs at the suggestion that we can win this war with honour intact. He said to us "stand on the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honour matters."

A rubbish question if I ever hear one. One way or another, we all die. In the end, honour is _all_ that matters.

The dead know that better than anyone.


	37. Chapter 37, Tuchanka

**37 Tuchanka**

 **-** Mordin is well on his way to developing the cure, working feverishly while maintaining his signature cheery-chatterbox manner in constant (and nearly one-sided) conversation with Eve. When I asked him privately about how easily, even readily, he is voluntarily undoing years of his work, Mordin insists his motives are purely practical, providing the means for the now essential cooperation of the Krogan in order to save the Galaxy from immediate destruction. But I suspect there's more to it than that. Mordin isn't a callous or unempathetic fellow. Despite all of the very good reasons for the Genophage, I think having reinstated the waning Genophage took its toll on Mordin's conscience. Despite the risks, I think he delights in the opportunity to undo that work.

The Krogan were bloodthirsty and aggressive to begin with: that's the reason the Genophage was created in the first place. But while it curbed the full potential of the Krogan race as a dominant force in the Galaxy, it also nearly guaranteed that Krogan would almost uniformly seek out conflict rather than build families, ruling out even the possibility of a peaceful and productive life. With the Genophage technically reducing Krogan reproductive viability to a barely sustainable birthrate, the steady decline of the Krogan population, and their eventual extinction, was all but ensured.

Before Wrex, there was no recognized leader of Tuchanka: the Krogan race consisted of disparate clans that killed each other as much as anyone else. Wrex is an anomaly among Krogan. He not only had the strength and brutal charisma to unite most of the violent and volatile Krogan under his rule, he also has the sense and foresight to see that retribution and galactic war would be counterproductive for all concerned. It's true he'll want to expand; Tuchanka is little more than an ashen waste heap, but he wants to do so peacefully, through colonization rather than conquest. As fate would have it, the creation of a cure for the Genophage coincides with the arrival of a leader among Krogan who represents their first real chance for peace. If anything were to happen to Wrex, it would be a very different story.

Wrex has discreetly informed me of some ominous news. He'd heard rumours of activity around the Rachni Relay, and sent a team of scouts to investigate. They never reported back. He's prepared to send in Arlakh company, his best men, to find out what happened to the scouts, and wants me to accompany them. If something's gone wrong, if the Rachni are once again a threat, it could mean being caught between them and the Reapers.

Primarch Victus has also asked for my help in addressing an immediate emergency. He only spoke in private, and told me almost no details, only that a Turian platoon had been deployed to Tuchanka in secret, "a matter of galactic peace," he says. The platoon crashed and lost radio contact. He asks that I rescue the team and ensure that they complete their mission, at any cost.

I have no idea what a Turian platoon could be doing on Tuchanka, but it's bound to be something truly extreme to draw dearly needed assets away from their imperilled planet. The Turians are up to something desperate, and don't want the Krogans to know about it.

This should be good.

 **-** Platoon secured. Turians were surrounded and outnumbered by Reaper forces. We've yet to see a true Reaper show up in Krogan space, but they're slipping in various infantry, clearly trying to stall proceedings in the region without devoting resources already engaging Human and Turian fleets. We're still loosing territory to them at an alarming rate, being forced to flee nine out ten engagements, but it is some hope to see that their assets are not unlimited, that they too must allocate forces carefully in effort to not compromise their primary operations.

The platoon is commanded by Lieutenant Victus, the Primarch's son. He says their mission is to disarm a massive bomb held by Cerberus on Tuchanka. The Lieutenant has rallied his disgruntled men, and will scout out the bomb site. I'll rejoin them in twenty-four hours' time. In the meantime, I have a few questions to ask the Primarch.

 **-** Primarch Victus still won't tell me anything more, only insisting again that I must see to it that the platoon completes its mission no matter what. I won't disagree with that, but I would like to know why he didn't tell me about the bomb before, what more he isn't telling me now.

Mordin reports the cure complete, ready for mass production and dispersal. Consensus is that the Shroud, a facility on Tuchanka built by the Salarians to stabilize the atmosphere, and also used by the Turians to spread the Genophage, is the best way to disperse the cure.

I'm ordering a delay. We have a major situation brewing with this bomb, an imminent catastrophe that could render the Cure all but meaningless. Why Cerberus wants to blow up half of Tuchanka is anybody's guess. We don't know what's going on, and locking down this bomb takes absolute priority.

 **-** Bomb secured and disabled. Lieutenant Victus sacrificed himself to ensure the success of the mission. The bomb had been planted centuries ago by the Turians as a safeguard against potential Krogan aggression in the event that the Genophage fail or prove insufficient. Had Cerberus succeeded in detonating it, all chance of peace between the Turians and the Krogan would vanish.

Wrex knows. And he is not pleased. Tis certain he would be angry with Victus, if time were convenient.

I don't know what Cerberus thinks they're up to, but it sure as hell looks to me like they're helping the Reapers.

If so, it's quite possible even they don't know that.

Victus said that the platoon sent to Tuchanka must complete its mission, at any cost. That cost has been paid. Half the men of that platoon, the Primarch's son among them, fought and died on Tuchanka to ensure the survival of the Krogan. The Krogan should honour them.


	38. Chapter 38, The Battle of the Shroud

**38 The Battle of the Shroud**

 **-** A Reaper has landed on Tuchanka.

Thankfully it's one of the smaller destroyer-class monsters, not a Sovereign-class megalith. Nonetheless, a sentient and deadly-cunning hunk of metal one hundred sixty metres tall is a matter of grave concern. Not to mention the army of Husks, Marauders, Cannibals, and Brutes clustering around its feet that have commandeered the Shroud and are using it to disperse poison into the atmosphere of Tuchanka.

Available resources are limited. Despite the associated stakes, this showdown on Tuchanka is but a backstage skirmish compared to the ensuing battles of the Alliance and Turian fleets against the Reapers.

The Normandy can't join this fight on account of Cerberus occupying, repairing, and arming an old Krogan planetary defence cannon in range of the airspace over the Shroud. We can't spare the time to disable the gun, not while the Shroud is actively pumping toxins into the air. Without time to neutralize that cannon, we'll be marching on the Shroud without even the chance to attempt meaningful air superiority.

The presence of the Primarch aboard the Normandy makes it all the more impossible that we expose the ship to the direct view of that heavy gun, to say nothing of the Reaper. One or the other the Normandy _might_ stand some chance against. But against both combined the outcome would be certain defeat.

We need a way to take down that Reaper, but despite the ferocity of the Krogan footsoldiers, they possess little in the way of advanced military hardware, certainly nothing to match a mountain of prehistoric alien metal. The best they can bring to bear against the monster is a few detachments of small-scale mobilized artillery, largely outdated.

The most that Palaven can spare us at this time is one fighter squadron, craft too small for the Cerberus gun to threaten. This, with Krogan artillery vehicles, will have to suffice for fighting the Reaper. They may or may not manage to bring it down, but they should at least be able to distract it and draw it away from the Shroud.

Here's the plan. The Krogan artillery will in concert with the Turian fighters engage, and if possible destroy, the Reaper. The bulk of the Krogan infantry, spearheaded by clan Urdnot and their redoubtable chieftain Wrex, will engage the Reaper footsoldiers while I take a small insertion team to the Shroud. Hopefully we can get Mordin and Eve there without exposing them to the attention of the entire Reaper defence force.

It is uncertain if Eve will survive the process. I hope so. She's proven herself capable of impressive leadership skills in rallying the dubious Krogan. Should both she and Wrex live, they will make an excellent match.

 **-** The Salarian Dalatrass has just covertly made contact. She says that the STG sabotaged the Shroud years ago to prevent just such an attempt as we are about to make. Mordin will likely detect the malfunction and repair it. Otherwise the cure will be rendered inert, and no one the wiser. She all but told me to murder Mordin, promising me in return full Salarian support.

I'm insulted. To think I'd kill a trusted friend for political leverage. Besides, I would never betray the Krogan like that. Of course there's a chance the Krogan will start a war. Wars happen. There is no nation, no treaty, no mortal provision of any kind perfect enough to guarantee lasting peace. All such constructs are innately flawed because they are made and held by flawed creatures. History is one long account of disaster and renaissance, treachery and virtue, triumph and defeat, peace and war, civilization constantly pulling itself out of the rubble to rise and fall again in endless struggle against mortal failings. We cannot guarantee the future. All we can do is our best to make peace in our time. This cure for the Genophage, and the leadership of Wrex, constitute the best possible chance for lasting peace between the Krogan and the rest of the Galaxy, and there is no more certain way to guarantee their undying enmity than to betray them now. I will not for fear of war lend my hand to ensure it. The Dalatrass can go to hell. But that's none of my business.

 **-** We're groundside. Turian wing Artimec is inbound to the Reaper. Krogan tanks will rendezvous with them at the Shroud in one hour, infantry moving to engage.

This will be bloody, and it looks like the Krogan are up for it. It's been centuries since the Krogan have fought a proper war, and the soldiers I see before me are chaffing at the bit to spill some Reaper blood. Despite the very real threat posed by this Reaper on Tuchanka, despite the possibility that it could prevent us from successfully curing the Genophage, this fight for the Shroud gives us a perhaps essential opportunity to motivate the Krogan. When asked to go fight alongside Turians, the average Krogan will find but little motivation to risk his neck for his hereditary enemies. But when a new enemy arrives in presumptive arrogance to directly threaten their own homeworld of Tuchanka, every Krogan will immediately reach for his shotgun; and once committed to their own war against the Reapers, deployment to Palaven is a mere extension of that reprisal.

Shroud is in sight, Reaper in the way. The rumble of our tank-treads is matched by the growl of occupants eager to tear and rend. Now let the Krogan do what they do best.

 **-** The cure is deployed, the Reaper destroyed. The Krogan emerge victorious.

The Krogan soldiers tore through the Reaper thralls like a fire through dry grass. The Krogan may have been largely disarmed by the Turians, but they've not lost that brutal ferocity that earned them the fear of the entire galaxy. Now that Krogan have gained a taste for Reaper blood, they hardly need asking to march against the Reapers on Palaven.

Despite the Krogan's easy victory against the Reaper footsoldiers, the Reaper itself proved a far harder nut to crack: available forces proved insufficient to defeat the monster, and Wrex resorted to the summoning of Kalross, the Mother of All Thresher Maws. It was quite a sight to see, two behemoths, one metal the other flesh, grappling under the fierce Tuchanka sun and laying waste to the terrain around them. The Reaper disappeared underground in the grip of the Thresher Maw, and now appears completely inert to orbital readings. Kalross' status is unconfirmed. Liara has issued strict warning to the Krogan to avoid approaching the Reaper corpse. The last thing we need now is for the Krogan to become Indoctrinated.

The Shroud was razed to the ground in the ensuing carnage, and Mordin sacrificed his life braving explosions therein to ensure the successful launch of the cure. The Salarian who died to save the Krogan will live as an example of goodwill to strengthen the bonds of peace between the races.

Mordin was a good friend, and comported himself with all the selfless courage that may be expected of the bravest soldier. At the end, he insisted that he could not have done otherwise: "Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong."

And he was likely right. Due in no small part to his caring expertise, Eve survived, and will be rallying the Krogan at home while her husband leads them into battle.

Wrex is much pleased, and with good reason; the Krogan united, invaders smited, the Genophage cured, and peace made with the Turians? Not bad for a bloody merc who three years ago had nothing to his name but his armour and a gun. I'd known when I first met him there was more to Wrex than most Krogan, but what he has accomplished surpasses all possible expectation. He's done well by his people, and they've made him proud this day.

Wrex is as good as his word. Now that the Cure is delivered, there will be no more delays, and his soldiers will begin deploying to Palaven immediately. Even better, they've revealed massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons, carefully hidden from Turian eyes till now. The Turians will now welcome those weapons as the Krogan bring them to the defence of Palaven. Logistics must be seen to. We'll need troopships and supplies, rations and shipping to get the Krogan to Palaven and keep them sustained once they arrive. Keeping our vicious and voracious friends nourished throughout this war will be no light consideration. Krogan can sustain tremendous injury, but that entails a monstrous appetite.

It remains to be proven how the Krogan will live once the war is over, but with this Cure we have good reason to hope for peace. Friendship is born of shared adversity, and the strongest bonds are those forged in war.

With the Krogan and Turians fighting side by side, we just might live long enough to see that peace.

Even the Reapers have to be worried by that alliance.


	39. Chapter 39, Rachni

**39 Rachni**

 **-** I've received two messages. The first was from Surkesh. The Salarian Dalatrass sent a grim transmission prophesying the doom of all galactic society, beginning with her culture, and had the gall to blame me for Mordin's death. Despite the Salarians officially refusing both military aid and technical assistance with the Crucible, there appear to be schisms forming in Salarian leadership. The STG has joined the fight against the Reapers, and certain Salarian captains have promised their ships in support of the Crucible. Even some Salarian scientists have volunteered immediate service for the project. It's heartening to see that, despite the idiocy of their politicians, the Salarians are not uniformly fools enough to sit back and watch the Galaxy fall around them.

The second message was from the Citadel; Councillor Vallern discreetly confides in me a suspicion that his human colleague is crooked, and has asked for my help in dealing with suspected corrupt dealings by the Councillor Udina.

At a time like this, the Salarian Councillor wants to dig up petty criminality? Of course Udina is dirty. I'd be surprised to hear that he wasn't. I'll get back to Valern on this later. In the meanwhile I have more urgent matters to attend to.

 **-** The Cerberus forces holding the defence cannon have been dealt with. If they aren't working on behalf of the Reapers, they're making a darn good impression of it. That wrinkle nearly cost us the Krogan.

Now that we have a breathing space I can turn my attention to the rumours coming from the Rachni relay. Wrex's scouts aren't the only disappearances reported in that quarter. I have a bad feeling about this.

The Rachni were a force that terrorized the Galaxy millennia ago. So far as I know, this enigmatic and creepy species was the only non-biped race besides the Reapers ever to achieve space-flight. They are fast, cunning, and deadly. And they are very hard to kill. It was only through the arming of the Krogan that the Citadel races managed to defeat them. The Krogan hunted the Rachni to extinction, following them to their home system and killing every last soldier, worker, and queen.

Or so they thought. During Saren's attempt to hand the Galaxy over to Sovereign, his agents found a derelict ship adrift in the depths of space. Held in stasis aboard that ship was an egg; a Rachni queen. They took it to Noveria, there to breed in secret an army of Rachni soldiers. But the Queen's offspring, taken from her care, turned mad, and nearly destroyed the research base. I was there. My team found the station crawling with rabid, armoured insects the size of bears slaughtering every victim that fell into their clutches. The Queen I let live. A caged innocent who had done no wrong, the last member of a sentient race which knew of beauty, I could not murder when mercy was humbly asked. Freed from her confinement, the Queen left for a distant world, there to raise her children in peace, telling them of the mercy granted them. She promised to come to our aid when the Reapers returned.

Instead, we met Rachni among the Reaper forces on Tuchanka. With mutated and grotesque bodies, almost unrecognisable as Rachni, their mechanized joints and the artillery welded onto their backs made clear their exclusive purpose of destruction.

We're headed toward the Rachni Relay, there to rendezvous with Arlakh Company. We'll find out what happened to the Krogan scouts that disappeared. If it was Rachni, we must reach the heart of the nest and find the Queen. There are three possibilities. The first is that she lied, and joined the Reapers willingly. The second is that she has been turned, and is no longer a true self. The third is that she is prisoner, bound and controlled. If either of the first two, she must be destroyed. If the latter, she may be saved.

 **-** We've landed at the site of the scouts' disappearance, on the planet Utukka in the Mulla Xul System. The Krogan of Arlakh Company are led by none other than Urdnot Grunt. The proud great monster baby has come a long way from being a mistrusted "tank-bred." He now holds command of the finest Krogan fighting team in the Galaxy. His immense carnivorous jaw stretched wide in gleeful pride as he told us of how he'd won his way to command. With him and a troop of his fellows at his back, I'm confident we can tackle anything we find ahead in the tunnels the scouts never came out of.

Night is falling. That shouldn't matter, we're headed underground anyway. But for all his eager ferocity, Grunt is as close to worried as I've ever seen him. This place smells wrong, he says. And he's right. But it's more than the smell. Something about this whole place feels wrong; something warped is lurking beneath. We're about to plunge into a darkness concealing Heaven-knows what unthinkable horrors.

I'm a marine. This is my job.

Shame Ashley's missing out on this.

 **-** Mission complete. That Stygian pit was a veritable labyrinth of twisted passages and whispered menace, half-heard sounds alternately approaching and retreating as we pushed forward into the darkness.

We were cut off from the Krogan by a cave-in almost immediately upon entry.

We found webbing first; great, dark strands of clinging blackness that barred entry towards the innards of the caverns. Then we found wires, Reaper nodes, and more artificial barriers blocking access. These lengths and walls of metal, intermittently found along our path into the tunnels, should have seemed less alien and threatening than the webbing and clustered egg sacks they stood amongst. But instead the unnatural metal, undeniably Reaper in origin, screamed silently of an Alien hatred for us, greater than from any organic form we might find.

Then they hit us. From all angles at once, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, dozens, scores of the insecticival monsters poured out upon us. All was blood, bullets, and carnage, and then they were gone; only to return again in even greater numbers when we pushed forward again. That place was crawling with mutated Rachni, the Reapers were breeding an army down there, and we walked right into the middle of it.

We found the Queen. She was herself, prisoner and bound, breeding against her will the offspring that the Reapers warped and weaponized. Her shackles broken, she followed us out of the tunnels with all haste and fear. The Reaper-controlled Rachni would rather destroy her than see her free.

The Krogan team, tough as they were, were hard put to survive. They still retain the numbers to continue as a coherent fighting force, but they took casualties. Grunt himself nearly lost his life charging alone into a horde of Rachni to cover our retreat. He didn't need to do that. A couple of grenades, rationed and held in careful reserve from the rest of the fighting, finished off the last of the enemy that swarmed after us. I'd thought Grunt dead, having seen him plunge off the side of a subterranean cliff, taking one last enemy with him. But that indomitable reckless wonderful stupid fool pulled his Krogan hide out of there. Covered from hump to hoof in the blood of his crushed foes, Grunt stumbled out after us. That Krogan is hard to kill. It seems even his best efforts can't achieve it.

The Rachni Queen is now sent to help in the construction of the Crucible. Despite the misgivings of the engineers, her workers, hive-minded as they are, prove quite efficient at whatever task they are assigned.

It is probably in great part due to that hive-minded nature that the Reapers found them uniquely easy to dominate. Given what we know, it is almost certain that the Rachni invasion thousands of years ago was driven by Reaper influence. Even more interestingly, Javik tells us that the Rachni were an active enemy even during his time in the last cycle, fifty thousand years ago. This seems to break the rule of Reaper doctrine, that they defeat, enslave, and eventually destroy all space-faring species present in any given cycle. It seems the Reapers thought the Rachni too much fun to eliminate, the archetypical scary monsters with which to terrorize the Galaxy between cycles.

I dare say the Rachni Queen is embarrassed, to say the least. I'd found her on Noveria a pawn of Sovereign. Rescued and released, she'd promised to return the favour and send aid against the Reapers. Instead, I had to come after her again in very incriminating circumstances, once again rescuing her. She may not have been able to uphold her prior boast of direct military aid, but her children can help us build the Crucible. I don't think anyone, least of all her now, wants to risk sending any more Rachni against the Reapers. We'll keep them safely out of the enemy's reach.

In the meantime, the Reapers have lost their source of Rachi terror-troops. They still have what they've already fielded, and may even be able to clone a few more, but they'll have to ration that resource carefully, instead of flooding every battlefield with giant insect monsters like they'd planned.

The Alliance, hitting the Reapers at any weak spot that presents itself, is still losing ground. The Arcturus Stream, Exodus, Kite's Nest, Gemini Sigma, and Attican Beta Clusters have all been occupied to one extent or another by Reaper forces. We're losing resources fast. We need to finish building the Crucible before we lose the means to do so.


	40. Chapter 40, Udina's Folly

**40 Udina's Folly**

 **-** We've hit a Cerberus research base. They're studying Reaper tech in earnest. Despite playing into the Reaper's hands at almost every opportunity, despite captured intel on "integration" of their personnel, it appears that Cerberus is not directly allied with or under the control of the Reapers. It's still possible that the Reapers are influencing them without their knowledge.

Besides detailed diagnostics on volatile Reaper tech, the base's databanks also held, among other things, significant intel on the nature, composition, and dispersal of Reaper forces. This information should prove quite valuable.

Admiral Hackett has a certain cruel pragmatism to him. Due to the advantages of Reaper technology and the hazards entailed in studying it, Hackett ordered us to leave the research base intact, bugging the systems rather than blow everything up. Cerberus will continue studying Reaper technology, and we will learn everything they do with none the associated risk. Clever plan. Brutal, but clever.

Now that we've a small breathing space, I can spare Councillor Valern his requested time to look into Udina's dirty laundry. Bloody waste of time.

At least this gives me the opportunity to visit Ashley. She should be almost back to normal now, and if I know her, chaffing at the bit to get back in action. There's Reapers out there that need killing, and she's been stuck on the Citadel with nothing to shoot at but targets in a gun range.

 **-** Emergency. The Citadel is under attack by Cerberus forces. There's no signs of ship combat, only infantry. They completely bypassed perimeter defences. Both their purpose and means of entry are unknown. C-Sec is in disarray and the Council uncounted for.

All official channels are scrambled, but we've got radio contact with Thane. The terminally ill Drell is out and fighting Cerberus. He lost sight of Ashley; she eluded his care and ran off to protect the Council.

Thane Krios, the best assassin in the Galaxy, lost Ashley. She's good.

The team's ready. We're going in.

 **-** Situation secure: the Citadel is cleansed of Cerberus infestation and the Council is safe; minus one half-witted numbskull of an idiot. Turns out Valern was right to be concerned about that gormless skunk Udina: he was the one responsible for smuggling Cerberus in. Without him, Cerberus would never have gotten past the patrol fleet. I'd have far rather taken him alive, but he panicked when confronted, and moved to shoot the Asari Councillor; a fatal mistake.

And here I'd thought Valern was making mountains out of molehills about Udina's back-room dealings. It seems fairly obvious in hindsight what he was doing this for: he'd appealed for aid to retake Earth, and been overruled by the rest of the Council. So, to save Humanity, Udina sought to use Cerberus as means to stage a coup. With the Citadel under his control, he'd have launched an immediate joint-species attack on the Reaper forces occupying Earth.

This demonstrates not only foolish desperation, but complete disregard for the decided strategy of Alliance military. If we were to move on Earth sooner rather than later, the time has long passed. All large-scale resistance on Earth has been wiped out; all that's left is a mobile network of commandos under Anderson's command carrying out guerilla style hit-and-run strikes against the Reapers, doing as much damage as they can to local reaper detachments before scrambling to evade the retaliatory Reaper bombardment. To retake Earth now will require us to finish the Crucible, and attack with the combined power of all fleets at once. Even with a successful coup, Udina would not have control of all fleets. He would have spent the bulk of our forces prematurely in an almost certainly disastrous attack that would only deplete our strength and all but guarantee our eventual defeat.

I strongly suspect that, had he succeeded in the attempted coup, Udina would have found himself just as quickly thrown aside, having been but an unwitting and convenient puppet for Cerberus (assuming they even let him live). I don't think Udina meant for things to get out of hand as they did. I suspect his idea was to capture and take the other Councillors prisoner, secretly if possible, or to be killed if necessary. It seems highly unlikely that flooding the streets of the Citadel with Cerberus assault troopers, shooting civilians and C-Sec alike, was actually part of his plan: he was clearly not in control of the situation as he'd thought. Deal with the Devil, pay the price.

More people than Udina paid a price today. A lot of civilians died at Cerberus' hands, and a not-inconsiderable portion of C-Sec died trying to defend them. Thane too is now numbered among the dead.

He was stabbed while defending the Salarian Councillor from a Cerberus assassin. The doctors did what they could for him, but the blood loss combined with his illness rendered all treatments moot. Thane died in peace, his son at his side. He died a hero's death, having spent his life to save another. His passing was soon to come anyway, and the Cerberus attack afforded him the opportunity to die nobly.

Thane spent the last years of his life trying to wipe out the red in his ledger, to counterbalance the sins of his past as an indiscriminate killer for hire. I trust his efforts to achieve redemption were not in vain, that whatever gods he worshipped, the God of mercy will smile kindly upon his contrite soul.

The assassin who spearheaded the attack, the one who killed Thane, is well known to Anderson. Kai Leng, ex Alliance, achieved N7 designation, top performance record, evaded disciplinary action for theft on account of excellence of service, eventually was dishonourably discharged and imprisoned for murder. Cerberus broke him out of prison, and he became an augmented agent of the Illusive Man. Anderson thought he'd killed Leng on one occasion, only for him to return with cybernetic implants. This is one tough bastard, and likely only failed to kill the Councillors through miscalculation born of hubris. We haven't seen the last of him.

Things were tense, to say the least, when we cornered Udina. With C-Sec in disarray and scrambling to remember up from down, Ashley had swooped in, effectively neutering Udina's immediate plans by whisking him and the Turian and Asari Councillors out of immediate danger and rushing them to a shuttle. But the shuttle was disabled, and my team found them grounded and cornered.

I admit it looked pretty suspicious. Cerberus attacking the Citadel, clearly with inside aid, and me, the soldier who had worked with Cerberus, pointing a gun at a Citadel Councillor.

My mind stayed low, refusing to acknowledge the fact that Ashley and I were one twitchy finger away from killing each other. Udina loudly insisted that that I was the traitor working with Cerberus, then immediately [without meaning to] defended me by declaring that my accusations of him being the traitor were outrageous and without proof, as always. I couldn't have said it better myself. For years, I issued warnings that our superiors ignored, and Ashley had been right by my side through most of that.

Ashley took a risk and chose to trust me, then turned to arrest Udina. That's when he panicked and got himself shot.

Despite the narrow cliff edge we passed, I'm glad the issue of Cerberus, the mountain of doubt between me and Ashley, came to a head. Until it had been truly tested, that matter, even if shelved and suspended, would always have been an unspoken wall between us. The worst that could occur was made an immediate possibility; everything hung in the balance. When it came down to it, when everyone's life hung on her decision, Ashley chose to believe in me, and her trust was proven justified. It is a debt I will always owe her.

Cerberus really shot themselves in the foot with this attack. They bungled their seizure of the Citadel, and instead accidentally did the Alliance a favour. Such a sudden and dangerous attack upon their impregnable fortress, so nearly successful, has shaken the Council. The Asari have begun sending scientists to assist in the Crucible, and have promised us their fleets when we launch it, including the Destiny Ascension. A powerful symbol, that beautiful ship. Despite its heavy armaments, its effect on morale may be even greater than its tactical impact.

Ashley has been medically cleared for duty. She has officially, and unofficially, requested reassignment aboard the Normandy. Ashley's been missed, and not just by me. I don't think there's a single member of the crew, from Garrus and Liara to Adams and Chakwas, that won't be happy to see Lieutenant Commander Williams back in action with us.

It means more than I can say to once more have her by my side, without doubt, without complications. The air is clear now. We are free.


	41. Chapter 41, Asari Distress

**41 Asari Distress**

 **-** Ashley has settled in aboard the Normandy, and despite an involuntary twitch of the gun hand, she refrained from shooting EDI on sight. Even with prior warning that the same cerberus robot which nearly killed her is now occupied by our ship's AI, it was plainly no easy matter for Ashley to abide its presence upon meeting, and I don't foresee the two of them having tea together any time soon. Had I been so foolish as to bring EDI with me to reclaim the Citadel, things would have gone far, far worse.

The Reapers have conquered and occupied a lot of territory, but their alarming rate of expansion is beginning to ebb. Numerous and awingly powerful as they are, even they cannot defend all points at once. The Alliance Navy cannot reclaim lost ground, but we've begun putting sever dents in Reaper occupation forces left to subdue captured worlds. Forced to begin covering their proverbial tails and intermittently back-tracking, the Reapers cannot sustain their hitherto headlong rate of expansion. Instead of wasting our forces in futile defence against overwhelming odds, Hackett has preserved our fleets at the cost of ground, focusing on counter-attacks whenever and wherever the Reapers leave themselves vulnerable.

The inevitable long-term result of this conflict is still a foregone conclusion, but their advance is in abatement. We can hold them for a long time yet.

Liara has informed me of an Asari distress call in the Nimbus Cluster. Asari High Command sent in commandos. Those soldiers have failed to report back.

They aren't the hardiest race the Galaxy, but Asari commandos, lithe and powerful biotics, some with centuries of experience, are among the most cunning and lethal hunters in the Galaxy. If a team of them were somehow outmatched, the danger must be great indeed. Liara tells me that out of all the threats Asari face at this time, they've asked for my aid in this matter. They haven't said why, only giving us the coordinates for a habitation on the planet Lesuss.

This sounds important. Especially as there is no intel available; both the planet the commandos were sent to and their mission there are conspicuously lacking in details. An Asari colony in the Mesana System, Lesuss has no disclosed population or industry, its environment is barely habitable; dark, barren, inhospitable, and cold. A grim place.

Setting course for Lesuss.

 **-** O horrors. I've seen many grim things in the course of my service, the Reapers have been cause of all the worst. But for all the atrocities and twisted abominations that I've seen, what we found on Lesuss chills me to the bone.

We found the outer grounds of the monastery vacant, filled only with the bleak light of a cold and distant sun, dominated overall by an absolute silence. The pale and cheerless light of the grounds left behind for the pitch-dark halls of the interior, our torches almost seemed weaker than they ought: the clinging darkness receded grudgingly before our advance, only to close in again behind us like some grim curtain that crept and closed round our small circle of light. And over all hung the same constant of deathly silence.

We searched through that place, room after room revealing no living thing; neither friend nor foe was to be found in all the upper levels. And so we searched deeper, creeping further and further down into the depths of that lifeless edifice, hands gripping weapons and trigger-fingers twitching at the sound of our own footsteps, we strained to penetrate what seemed an iron curtain of almost tangible dread surrounded by a mute and hollow blackness. I swear I could hear the sound of Ashley's heartbeat behind me; Liara's sharp intake of breath at the clatter of something brushed off a table as we passed, Garrus' rasping hiss of anticipation at the turn of a corner, seemed loud and dangerous.

The noises came slowly at first. Faint whispers. Our own movements had become so loud in our ears as we slipped through those still and noiseless halls, with no living thing to be found, our hearing was keyed to the highest pitch. We stopped stock still, trying to tell from whence the whispers came. Had there ever been such a thing as a mouse in some hidden corner of that place, the noise that broke suddenly upon our ears like a knife in the dark would have struck it dead with fear: for the whispers of menace that seemed first near then far were suddenly consummated by such a scream as no natural thing can make.

A banshee had found us.

The Reapers have harvested and warped many races; Human, Batarian, Rachni, Prothean, Turian, even fusing Turian and Krogan together into one powerful monstrosity. Hitherto, the Asari have had but little contact with the Reapers, and none have been turned. That changed on Lesuss. The beautiful and serene Asari were being taken and changed.

The results of the Reapers' diabolical machinations are always gruesome and horrifying, an unliving blasphemy against the life and beauty of the original. But the Asari; the difference was even more acute. Nothing could be further from those fair, gentle blue nymphs than the menacing aberrations they were transformed into. Dark, towering mockeries of feminine form, those monsters emit a shriek that curdles the blood: it is as though the all-consuming hatred of the Reapers were mingled with the voice of a woman's last cry in all-surpassing fear and pain.

They are very hard to kill.

Lesuss was home to an Ardat Yakshi monastery. Unlike Morinth who chose to indulge her mortal appetite and feed upon the minds of an endless sequence of lovers, these Ardat Yakshi chose to live a life of seclusion. Born with defects beyond their will or control, they made the only choice they could in remaining there on Lesuss, a lonely and celibate company of mutual isolation living out the many long years of their Asari lifespan on this cold and lonesome rock, a place where even the sun at its height fails to warm the stone or lighten the sky.

Samara was there. We found her fighting the Reapers in the depths of the monastery. Of her three daughters, one she has killed for murder, with my help: Morinth was the reason why Samara had become a Justicar, and now she had returned here to save her two remaining daughters.

Three daughters, all of them Ardat Yakshi. It is no great wonder that Samara chose to bind herself to a code of absolute justice, or that her mate, an Asari whose name I never learned, ended her own life.

But only one of Samara's daughters could be saved. Falere, who tried so hard to save her sister Rila, is the only survivor from that grim harvest of Lesuss. Rila, too far gone to be saved, regained control of her own will long enough to detonate the bomb that the now dead commandos had brought with them. She died in cleansing inferno amidst those that sought to claim her. The reapers thralls were purged from Lesuss. Rila's bravery is to be commended.

It is uncertain what Samara's original intentions had been when she came to the monastery; perhaps even she herself did not know. But Rila's strength and resolve even as the shades of blackness were falling across her eyes rendered once more firm in Samara's mind the duty of the Justicar code. It forbids any Ardat Yakshi to live outside of a monastery, on pain of death. In what she saw as her only way to avoid breaking her code, Samara drew her weapon, and nearly took her own life rather than kill her last daughter. With my intervention, and Falere's voluntary promise to abide in the ruins of the monastery rather than leave, Samara was spared from her own adherence to a code that brooked no compromise.

It will be difficult for Falere to survive here in this barren and desolate landscape, but she may well outlive the rest of us. With the monastery and all who were within destroyed, this out-of the-way planet no longer holds anything of value to the Reapers. Were we to fail, it is possible Falere would eke out a meagre existence on this rock, and in the end die a natural death here on Lesuss, long after the rest of the Galaxy had been consumed.

The Normandy has provided Falere with enough supplies to last for some months, long enough to for the war to be decided, one way or another. Clean-up for whichever side wins could take decades even centuries, but within a few months we will have completed and deployed the Crucible, and determined the fate of the Galaxy.

We're all soldiers. Even Liara, sweet and harmless though she may seem, is battle-hardened; there's not a soul aboard this ship that hasn't seen Reapers and their abominations before, but even they seemed shaken by what we found on Lesuss. We'd all known, sooner or later, Asari too would be seized by the Reapers. That knowledge fails to mitigate the horror we witnessed. Even the snide and arrogant Javik was quiet after seeing what the Reapers had wrought upon the fair Asari. The monastery isn't all. There'll be more of them.

Should Samara survive the war, she will return to her daughter. Sentiment; sweet it may be in peace, but in war its bitterness arises at the loss of those that are loved. So much death. Those two are the sole survivors of a family fraught with pain and loss. Most women would not bear it with strength as they do. Perhaps in times like these, even the weak are granted strength beyond their nature.

May that strength that comes from above be with us all.


	42. Chapter 42, Defectors &Crime Syndicates

**42 Defectors and Crime Syndicates**

 **-** It's easy to forget that not all of the combat-ready forces of the galaxy are government-sanctioned fleets and armies. Besides local militias and makeshift civilian resistance, there are also the criminal elements, from local gangs to galaxy-class mercenary bands. The Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Bloodpack are the three most powerful and well organized of these disreputable brigands. They have thus far taken but little part in the Reaper war, beyond of course avoiding the Reaper invasion front and taking advantage of whatever resources become exposed. If they could be recruited, it would add a welcome boost to our combat-ready forces in this everywhere and everything against the Reapers.

There are two difficulties with such a plan. The first is getting them to cooperate with our command structure. The second is getting them to work together without tearing each other's throats out. They are, after all, criminals, and have fought each other perhaps even more than the authorities.

As fortune would have it, the second difficulty seems to be clearing itself up already.  
Prior to expulsion by Cerberus from her seat of power on the pretentiously named waste bin of Omega, Aria T'Loak was the biggest crime boss on that station, the centre of criminal enterprises in the whole of the Terminus Systems. Despite her sour disposition, Aria was an unusually pragmatic crime boss, providing what little security and stability Omega had. She's currently trying to unite the Blue Suns, Bloodpack, and Eclipse under her rule. She's smart enough to realise that it's in her interest to help combat the Reaper threat, and that she has the means to rally these disparate factions into a joint force for that purpose; and her own personal power of course.

Under any other circumstances, helping a crime lord amass more power would be a capital offence, but we need more guns on the ground, and Aria's coalition presents an opportunity to take advantage of a resource that would otherwise be very difficult to utilize. I am officially requesting permission from Alliance Command to proceed with perhaps the most unorthodox mission ever undertaken by an Alliance officer.

 **-** Orders received. I am authorized to solidify Aria's control of the Terminus gangs, and ordered to take all reasonable measures to obtain Aria's cooperation against the Reapers.

As part of our deal with T'Bitch, I will help her retake Omega and its stores of Ezo. The Cerberus occupation force there is commanded by Oleg Petrovsky, one of the Illusive Man's top military strategists. He should prove a tough nut to crack. Aria has made it clear she cannot operate with my combat team. She named no names, but it seems perfectly obvious the individual in question is Garrus. Archangel united the merc bands once before in a group effort to kill him. Bringing my best friend along would in this particular case be inadvisable.

I'm leaving the Normandy under Ashley's command: her orders are to continue running standard interference against Reaper occupation forces. Williams knows the ship and crew, and should have little difficulty keeping the Normandy intact and her crew alive.

I can't say I'm looking forward to seeing Omega again. Aria's company is also something I'd hoped to avoid. It's no accident such a waspish and unprincipled individual feels at home on that filthy rock.

 **-** Aria's coalition has breached the Cerberus defence fleet and engaged the entrenched enemy in a street-to-street, door-to-door fight through the dark and dirty streets of Omega, the garish and neon lights of shady vendors illuminating a gruelling and savage fight between mutated soldiers and murderous hoodlums. The run-of-the-mill gang warfare of Omega has merely been replaced by an augmented and intensified variant, one where the usual factions have been united by the intrusion of a new adversary, the jack-booted control of Cerberus domination.

We've got our first foothold, now it's time to make our next move. Cerberus has blocked off most of the avenues of advance with energy barriers. Aria's engineers are trying to find a way to bypass control directly, but with little success. There are, however, chinks in the armour. A small team can bypass the barriers through maintenance routes without attracting attention. Aria's ensuring all teams are ready to assault the moment the shields go down.

 **-** I've received an encrypted transmission from Ashley. She's caught wind of some Cerberus defectors on the run in the Minos Wasteland, and is taking the Normandy in to investigate. Apparently she found it necessary to correct Javik's assumption that the goal is to kill the defectors.

She also relayed a surprising update from Hackett. The Crucible is being built far faster than I'd anticipated; Alliance engineers have through herculean effort completed perhaps fifty percent of the known work. Once decoded, the plans are easily translated for seamless construction. But even at this late hour, we still don't know how it will utilize the massive power it stores. The means for its application, the Catalyst, is still a complete mystery.

Despite being our single most well-informed expert on Protheans, never in all of her work did Liara find anything regarding the Catalyst, and neither her extensive network of intelligence nor any government and their official archives hold a solid lead on what it might be. Javik is himself a Prothean soldier, and doesn't know squat; not surprising as this Catalyst was obviously a tremendous military secret of the Protheans. They apparently safeguarded this secret very well. So well perhaps, we may never discover it.

What an incredible irony. We've discovered and are well on our way to completing the designs for this Prothean super-weapon, only to have the same security of knowledge that preserved the plans for our time prevent us from finding the last and crucial component. Could such success be achieved only to be thwarted by one final, obstinate, detail? God send that our fate will not prove so fickle.

 **-** Aria and I have made contact with an old friend of hers. Nyreen Kandros, ex Turian military, it seems she and Aria have a history. Apparently they parted ways when their incompatibilities grew more clear than infatuation. In Aria's sneering words, Kandros "practically oozes virtue." It's hard to see how this upright Turian soldier found anything compelling in Aria. I personally find our Asari confederate to be a pain in the neck.

Kandros is running an underground network of militants in opposition to the Cerberus occupation. They call themselves the Talons. She's agreed to coordinate with our assault, on the condition that we ensure the safety of civilians. It seems she not only commandeered this local gang she now commands, she's whipped them into shape to resemble a regular militia, uniformed and orderly. The ranks all seem to bear a strong loyalty for their leader. They speak of her with genuine regard, and salute with more than token spirit as she passes by. I admit I'm impressed Kandros successfully transformed what had been an ordinary gang of lowlifes into a disciplined and conscientious defence force that prioritizes safety of civilians over their own lives.

All forces are set. Petrovsky's defences are waiting for us. He thinks this is a game of chess. He's about to find out that his enemies don't play chess. They play dirty.

This is going to be bloody.

 **-** Operation complete. Omega is under Aria's control. The Cerberus forces there have been driven out, Petrovsky taken prisoner. Aria had wanted to kill him, and I'd have had no objection, but she let him live long enough to surrender. Given that he'd ordered his men to stand down and formally asked for quarter, I could not in good conscience stand by while Aria strangled him. Aria and I nearly came to blows when I demanded she desist. But the matter is resolved, and Aria will be sending Omega's considerable supply of Ezo to the Alliance, in addition to fielding her forces alongside the Alliance soldiers in combat.

Kandros is dead. She sacrificed herself to save civilians from Cerberus monsters. It appears Cerberus is not content merely to modify their soldiers using Reaper methods, they've begun going the whole hog and manufacturing monsters of their own design from the bodies of prisoners. It is becoming more and more obvious that, whatever the Illusive Man's original intentions were, Cerberus is irredeemable. Everything the Reapers are doing, Cerberus is doing, only slower.

With Kandros gone, it's unclear what will happen to her followers. The Talons will almost certainly fall under Aria's command. Whether they will maintain their own structure and discipline without their leader remains to be seen. Omega needs Kandros. One hopes her example, her spirit, will not be forgotten. I've sent a report to the Turian military, with a recommendation for Kandros' posthumous exoneration and commendation.

I now take my leave of Aria, and Omega. Normandy awaits!


	43. Chapter 43

**43 Task Force Aurora**

 **-** Priority message from Admiral Hackett. I am to report to a Dr. Bryson on the Citadel and render him all possible assistance, details classified. This sounds important.

Joker says we spend so much time running back to the Citadel we should save fuel and just "sit-a-there". I say he needs to stop making eyes at EDI; it's not healthy, this growing fascination of his with his robot copilot.

 **-** Ashley's time has been well spent during my absence, bagging quite a prize in the Minos Wasteland. The Cerberus defectors have been successfully rescued. Top scientists, they deserted en mass with their families when they realised their members were disappearing like clockwork as they completed their given assignments. While initially thinking they'd given Cerberus a clean slip, they'd soon found themselves trapped on the planet Gellix, surrounded, grounded, and out-gunned. The Illusive Man would have killed every single one of them rather than see them escape.

Jacob, who had remained with Cerberus when I left for the Alliance, was leading what little defence the scientists could put up against their pursuers, and had already taken a bullet by the time the Ashley and the Normandy showed up. Nevertheless the operation was a success: Jacob and almost all of his compatriots got out of there alive. Their expertise will be quite welcome in our construction of the Crucible.

Jacob has chosen to remain with the Cerberus scientists rather than rejoin the Normandy. Specifically, he's offered his services to Alliance leadership as advisor on Cerberus strategy and tactics. For my part, I trust Jacob's sincerity, and have officially vouched for him. The man doesn't have a deceitful bone in his body, and having been finally convinced of the Illusive Man's true nature, Jacob can be counted upon to fight against his erstwhile superior with all earnestness.

There is, however, the possibility of spies hidden amongst the scientists. They'll help build the crucible, but they'll be kept under discreet observation. I hate to seem suspicious of people who, in all likelihood, sought merely to save their own lives, but Cerberus has a solidly established habit of sleeper agents wrecking sudden havoc. Udina was not the only traitor on the Citadel.

One such "mole" was the Volus Ambassador. Political discretion forbids I make this story publicly known. Din Korlack had already begun to have doubts about his ties with Cerberus by the time they attacked the Citadel. After that, they used blackmail to gain information through him on classified Turian shipping. He then cut ties with Cerberus, but not before certain Turian officers put a bounty on his head. I pulled his little tail out of the fire, and he told me of an attack Cerberus is planning on the Turian shipyards at their colony on Aphis. When Cerberus arrives there, they'll find a warm welcome. Korlack will remain on the Citadel for the time being, where C-Sec can keep an eye on him.

It irritates me no end. The bloody Reaper invasion is underway, Earth is under occupation and being harvested, and not only am I not fighting on Earth, I'm spending as much time fighting Cerberus as Reapers. Cerberus was supposed to be an underhanded force for Humanity, and instead they're doing their level best to ensure our downfall. So the Illusive Man wants to control the Reapers; but does that hair-brained scheme of his require the destruction of the forces that oppose the Reapers? I'm becoming more and more convinced that the likelihood of, if not Cerberus, at least the Illusive Man being to some extent Indoctrinated, is very high. It would have to be a subtle measure of the affliction, enough to twist his mind without rendering him senseless. Maintaining such a delicate balance on such an intrinsically insidious and slippery slope as Indoctrination must require a very cautious measure of controlled exposure.

I've consulted Alliance Intelligence. We still do not have the location for the Cerberus central HQ. Over the course of this conflict, all Cerberus personnel that have been seized have either committed suicide, been too thoroughly reeducated to be of any use, or simply not known anything crucial. I mined Cerberus for all the data I could get my hands on during the Collector Crisis, and even that had failed to reveal the centre of the spider's web. Comprised of isolated Cells, each of which operates independently of the others, the whole network is specifically designed to thwart discovery. All Alliance assets, combat, intel, and logistics, are strained to the limit; we simply don't have the margin to track down Cerberus at this time. The Illusive Man remains, in a word, elusive.

When it all goes down, it won't be enough to destroy the Reapers; we have to walk through that fire with enough strength remaining to ensure that Cerberus is not left dominant. It would never do to slay the dragon only to be ruled by the jackal.

Citadel is in sight, docking clearance granted. Time to find Bryson. Crew has shore-leave for two hours.

 **-** Bryson is dead, shot by his assistant almost as soon as we walked into his office, as though it were our arrival that prompted the action. The shooter, Bryson's assistant, is named Hadley. His dossier checks out clean. Had there been any suspicion of his being a security compromise, he'd have never been assigned to Bryson's team, Task Force Aurora. After the event he claimed that he had no memory of shooting his superior, then collapsed after delivering an odd message: "Turn back. The darkness can't be breached." He's now comatose in a Citadel hospital under C-Sec watch.

Task Force Aurora was assigned to investigate all unexplained phenomena, past and present, that could lead to information on the Reapers. Bryson had begun following leads on what had caused the death of a Reaper found by the Batarians. This Reaper corpse, the Leviathan of Dis, as the Batarians called it, had been their downfall. Their people studying it had become Indoctrinated, and betrayed them to the Reapers. Bryson believed that the true Leviathan was not the dead Reaper, but the thing that had killed it. Unlike the Reaper corpse I acquired the IFF from to reach the Collector base, which had been killed by a defunct mass accelerator of enormous scale, the means of this other Reaper's death is unaccounted for, and conspicuous by absence. Bryson's investigation indicates that the cause of death was mobile: no possible remains of a weapon powerful enough were to be found anywhere near Dis. Moreover, the nature of the damage done to the Reaper was unique. It had been crushed.

That is a sobering thought. There's something out there in the depths of space, something we know nothing about, that has the power to crush a Reaper. To say that is unprecedented is an understatement of the highest degree.

Using a search pattern founded on alleged deep-space creature sightings crossed with Reaper hunting patterns – they are evidently searching for Leviathan too – Bryson's field teams are searching the Aysur system for clues. We're heading there now.

Garrus voiced the concern that finding this thing may very well necessitate its destruction. Despite the fact that it killed a Reaper, we have no guarantee of its disposition, or even its intelligence: it could be sentient, or it could be a more-or-less vegetative creature that destroys everything it catches. We only know that it's dangerous. Whatever the case, we need to know where it is, and more importantly, what it is.

 **-** Dr. Garnaue, Bryson's foremost field searcher, is dead. The station he was on is ostensibly a mining operation, but was instead researching everything from the digestive properties of Varren to varieties of carnivorous flora to the evolutionary implications of Human biotics.

Every person aboard that station was in a half-daze, as though the bulk of their brain function had been suspended, or diverted. We found an artefact in the mines; a dark orb with an inner glow, but it was immediately destroyed by one of the resident personnel. Immediately thereafter, everyone on the station stood up and looked about them as though they had been asleep. They're ten years behind times. They are now in Alliance custody for psychological evaluation and security. It appears the artefact we almost got our hands on was the means for what more or less equates to a form of indoctrination, different from standard Reaper Indoctrination in that once the source was destroyed, the effects were immediately terminated, and the subjects recovered their minds. The control was an active imposition of will, not a complete rewriting of the subject.

There was another such artefact in Bryson's office. We have an object with undefined powers of Indoctrination right in the heart of the Citadel.


	44. Chapter 44, Leviathan

**44 Leviathan**

 **-** The orb in Bryson's office is secure, the building under lockdown. We still don't know much about Indoctrination, but we have by this point determined how to block its effects through jamming. We've shielded the artefact, and C-Sec has established a perimeter around the building; we cannot afford to have this thing tampered with until we can figure out more about it.

Given that Hadley was fine one moment and dominated the next, was the only person in the room to be affected, and the personnel at the Mahavid mine suddenly regaining their senses upon destruction of the resident artefact there, Leviathan's indoctrination is significantly different from Reaper Indoctrination. While Reaper Indoctrination is gradual, permanent, and irreparable, this other method was sudden and temporary, a sharp suspension of the subject's will rather than rewriting its mind. Reapers and their artefacts emit an ambient signal of control without cessation until thoroughly destroyed. These strange orbs, on the other hand, imply a more selective approach, either that they themselves can choose when to activate and for what purpose, or that they are more or less merely doorways, doorways that something or someone else on the other side can open.

Our next best lead is in the Pylos Nebula; Dr. Bryson has a daughter, Ann, searching in the Zaherin system. According to a recently transmitted message, she may have found another such artefact on Namakli.

 **-** We have Ann Bryson, but the rest of her team was killed by Reapers; it seems they too were after the artefact, trying to activate it to trace Leviathan.

They may have succeeded.

We don't know if Leviathan is a rogue Reaper or something similar, or exactly how powerful it is. What we do know is that we need allies, and Leviathan, if found, could become a very powerful ally. We need to find it before the Reapers do. Summon bigger fish. With the Reapers hot on this thing's tail, we have no choice. I hope this doesn't end badly. But in the end, even if it weren't for the Reaper war, this creature is precisely the sort of thing the Alliance would be bound to investigate. If there's a predator out there, hitherto undiscovered, lurking somewhere in the gloom, we need to know what it is, where it's hiding, and what it's intentions are.

Our best means of tracking the Leviathan to its lair seems to be the same method used by the Reapers. We have the artefact on the Citadel shielded. If we unlock it and Leviathan reaches through, we should be able to trace the signal. It's a dangerous plan, but Ann has volunteered as bait. She's already felt the control of the artefact she dug up on Namakli, and is likely to be the easiest subject. She wants the creature responsible for her father's death found, no matter the cost to herself.

So be it. We'll get what we need then shut it off. Unlike the miners which felt only minor behavioural modification, Hadley was used as a direct mouthpiece by Leviathan, and is still in the hospital. This could prove fatal for Ann, but the choice is hers.

 **-** Done. We have a trace in Sigurd's Cradle, but will have to narrow it down through search pattern. Ann is shaken, but unharmed. She says that she thinks Leviathan is angry at being found. That comes as no surprise. Let's hope it's willing to negotiate.

 **-** We've followed Leviathan's signature to the planet 2181 Despoina in the Tophet system. It appears to be underwater. Splendid.

 **-** We found Leviathan.

The shuttle was struck, and crashed-landed by mixture of luck and our pilot's skill on the hull of a derelict freighter, floating in interminable confinement upon a vast, grey ocean of heaving waves and sullen skies. This freighter, a human prospecting ship, had been disabled in the same way as our Kodiak: an EMP weapon, the source of which lay hidden deep beneath the surface, down in the dark where Leviathan lurked. Our quarry was old and cunning, and had ensured that, should it ever be discovered, the ones who found it would never escape to tell the tale.

And so it was for the crew of that unfortunate vessel: their corpses lay in slow decay before more of those sinister orbs, the Artefact of Leviathan. They'd sought to find food and water on neighbouring wrecks, and brought back nothing but this: the cold, baleful stare of an alien mind, watching them slowly perish, alone on this desolate and lifeless ocean. No gulls, no scavenger of any kind, had touched their remains. They died utterly alone, but for the lurking creature that lay silent in the deep beneath.

And down we must needs go, to find home. Neither the crippled shuttle nor the orbiting Normandy, should it descend, could hope to escape this trap. Our only means of return was to follow the snare to its source; the Lair of Leviathan.

Reapers had followed us. Their scouts closed in round us as we prepped for descent. A single diving suit, salvaged from the wreck, was made ready. Alone I entered the suit, and alone I took the plunge, leaving behind the light of day, down, down, and ever further down, until at last I stood alone on the ocean floor, and searched for Leviathan, with no guide beyond the light of the suit, and the certainty that Leviathan would be found in the deepest crevice of that watery void, dark, and soundless.

The rock bed shook when it rose from the deep chasm where it lay. The Leviathan.

It's not a Reaper, it is in fact something far older; it is the original of which the Reapers are but imitation. Leviathan ruled the Galaxy in their time. The lesser races, meaning people like us, were their slaves, slaves ruled by the voice of Leviathan in their minds, and by that same means Leviathan spoke in my mind. I've heard and seen the thoughts of others in my own mind before, and though this strange conversation with the Leviathan comes nowhere near the horror of the Beacons, it was nonetheless an ordeal I wish never again to relive.

Long before the first Cycle, races across the Galaxy created artificial intelligence, and were invariably destroyed by their own creation. Leviathan, in its arrogance, created an intelligence of its own to solve the problem. Leviathan gave the Intelligence wide powers and resources, and it created servants to search the Galaxy for information that would provide it a solution.

But the Intelligence found no solution to the pattern of rise and fall, civilization and destruction, so instead chose to streamline the process, and created the Cycles for maximum efficiency of rise and fall, ensuring that future species would follow predetermined paths. The Galaxy was turned into a colossal science experiment, the Intelligence its master, and the Reapers its servants. The Leviathan were the first to be harvested. The Reapers had thought to render their predecessors extinct, but Leviathan survived, hidden in dark corners of the Galaxy. They are alive. They have been watching, and waiting, for the Reapers to find their solution. For uncounted millennia they have lurked in the shadows. Until today.

Obstinate and imperious, the Leviathan initially refused to heed my words, saying that the Cycle could not be broken, that it was pointless for them to become involved and reveal the location of the last of their species to the Reapers. I pointed out to them that the Reapers had found their hiding place, that they could remain secret no longer, that this cycle was different from previous cycles: we'd thwarted the Reapers' first attempt three years ago, and were now fighting a drawn-out war with better odds than any previous civilization.

After a show of hesitation, Leviathan agreed to help, destroying the Reaper that had pursued us to their planet. They will not directly expose themselves to danger in open war, but they have provided us with a great many of their artefacts. These covertly deployed behind enemy lines could turn vast numbers of Reaper forces against each other when crucial.

The suit's systems were failing, and oxygen had been long lost when I reached the surface. The next clear memory I have after concluding parley with the Leviathan is the anxious faces of Ashley and Garrus bent over me, the shuddering rumble of the Kodiak's engines whirring as we left that grim sea behind.

Garrus has made jokes about me having already died once and it not sticking. That dive very nearly did the trick. Ashley suggested, with all due respect, that it should have been her who went down, citing Alliance protocols forbidding unnecessary risk of senior officers.

Out of the question. Never in a million years would I consent to send Ashley into that black and cold depth alone.

I'll not pretend I'm entirely pleased with the result of this search. The Leviathan dominated the Galaxy once before, uncounted millennia ago, and may well attempt to do so again. Such an attempt may not occur for centuries; Leviathan has proven itself nothing if not patient.

Ashley has taken a philosophical view of the matter. She says that in the end, the origin of the Reapers is mere detail, irrelevant to our purpose. The Reapers were and are monsters that seek to defile the Galaxy, and therefore must be destroyed.

Despite the risks, one definite advantage has been gained. We have definitively and categorically proven that, despite their patently absurd claims, the Reapers are not infinite. The Galaxy has found the Origin of the Reapers, and is thus given new determination to provide them an end.


	45. Chapter 45, Quarian Invasion

**45 The Quarian Invasion**

 **-** The Quarians have so far been completely uninvolved in the Reaper War; they hold no planets for the Reapers to attack, and have made no move to offer us aid. The Quarians do not have so many dreadnoughts as the Turians, and their ships are typically second-class compared to the Citadel or Alliance vessels, but they nevertheless have the largest fleet in the Galaxy, and every vessel they possess is armed to some extent.

We need more ships of every purpose. We've lost a great deal of ground to the Reapers, and supply points are becoming fewer and farther between; an unarmed freighter could easily be worth a heavy combat vessel whose role it replaces in logistical support.

 **-** Quarian command has agreed to a meeting. The message was terse, even rigidly formal. Our intelligence has indicated for some time that Quarian ships have been preparing for something massive. I'd assumed that was war preparations against the Reapers, but given their continued absence on the scene of galactic conflict I'm beginning to have doubts. Those Quarians had better not be doing what I think they're doing.

 **-** Yep. I was right. The Quarian Admiralty have agreed to help in the Reaper War, but they need my help with a wee little problem first: namely that they're currently locked into a death match against the Geth in a fight the QUARIANS started. Led by Admiral Gerrel, they've launched an attack against the Geth in an attempt to reclaim their homeworld.

We're at war with the Reapers in a struggle that will determine the fate of the Galaxy, and the Quarians think now is a good time to pick a fight with a neutral party? Launching an assault upon Rannoch is a clear violation of their agreement with the Citadel Council to avoid provoking the Geth. I have a hunch that's precisely the reason for their choice of timing. Launch an attack when all is well and the Council will interfere. But if the rest of the Galaxy is otherwise occupied…

The Quarians' initial strikes were met with success, but the balance of power quickly changed in favour of the Geth. They're now being coordinated by a Reaper signal broadcast from their lead dreadnought. Had the Reapers been in contact with the Geth for long, we would have certainly felt Geth presence in the War before now. It seems obvious the Geth resorted to extreme measures when attacked by the Quarians. Even if they entered into some deal with the Reapers willingly, it is highly unlikely they can withdraw again so easily. In the meantime they have the Quarian fleet pinned and are tearing them apart.

The Normandy's stealth capabilities should enable us to board the dreadnought. We'll find the source of the Reaper signal, disable it, and allow the Quarians to pull out and regroup.

Little Tali is an Admiral. Officially. In actuality, she's still just a kid, a kid shoved for political reasons into her late father's command position, a position she is not equipped to fill. She confided privately that she did not and does not support the Quarian re-invasion of Rannoch, but that she must support the ruling of the other Admirals to maintain morale.

Of the five Quarian admirals, only Koris, commander of the Civilian Fleet, vocally opposes the invasion. Raan, commander of the Patrol Fleet, is a kind-hearted albeit soft-headed old woman who would be better suited to managing relief efforts than making strategic decisions. Xen, commander of the research fleet, is a cold-blooded scientist who is keen to dissect the first Geth she can get her hands on. Gerrel, a robust and domineering old soldier in command of the Heavy Fleet, overruled Koris through sheer force of will to lead the Quarians upon this ill-judged venture.

Raan and Tali were probably the deciding balance in the vote to attack the Geth. Had Koris won both their support, as he ought to have had little difficulty in doing, Gerrel's rash initiative would never have taken flight and dropped this unwelcome mess on our collective heads. Xen is a lost cause, and I don't expect unflinching conviction from either Tali or Raan in this controversial matter, but Koris could and ought to have done better.

 **-** In case there had been any question of whether Gerrel is a blasted fool, he ordered all ships to open fire on the dreadnought the moment it was disabled; while my team and I were still on board. One should not assume the worst of an ally, but it is not entirely impossible he saw opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: the source of the Reaper control, and the Citadel representative who might interfere with his invasion plans. Even worse, he fired on one of his own: Tali was accompanying my team aboard the dreadnought when the Quarian fleet opened fire. Her desperate attempt to countermand Gerrel's order was indicative of just how much authority Gerrel wields. Raan too attempted to call off the attack, and quailed before the reprimand of her purported equal.

I'm well aware of the fact that effective military leadership cannot be achieved by committee, that there must be a clear and undisputed authority to decide quickly and without delay, but it is becoming painfully clear that the Quarian leadership is being ruled by a man whose desperation to redress disaster in the wake of his own failure borders on monomaniacism.

For now, the Reaper signal is offline, the weakened Geth have disengaged, and the opposing fleets have pulled back to recoup their losses. Koris' ship went down in a suicide run against a Geth planetary defence cannon on Rannoch, and the remaining admirals show not the slightest inclination to dismiss or even overrule Gerrel's determination to prepare for another assault. The battle will resume. The Quarians will not take this opportunity to withdraw. At this point it's too late for that anyway. With the entire Geth network under Reaper control, they now pose a threat that must be eliminated, and fast.

We met an old friend aboard the Geth dreadnought. Legion. The Reapers were using him as an interface to broadcast their control throughout the Geth network. His restraints removed, he helped us disable the ship and evacuate in a Geth fighter when the Quarians opened fire. Despite being the medium for their control, Legion is apparently the only Geth not now subject to the Reapers' will. As much as I trust Legion, I'd not have taken his word for his sustained autonomy had he not proven himself friend through action when he had ample opportunity to turn on us. But I am still mystified why he alone is singularly immune to Reaper control. He can only tell me that it is because he is different, more advanced. Subjugation of synthetics would naturally function differently from Indoctrination of organics, so I suppose it is possible a preprepared program intended for the purpose could prove ineffective against a singular individual that failed to conform to expected specifications. There's no doubt Legion is exceptional among Geth, taking it upon himself to independently seek a means to stop the Geth Heretics, then ally with organics to destroy the Collectors.

Needless to say, the Quarian Admirals are alarmed by the sight of our new ally. Xen expressed a keen desire to dissect Legion. I asked her what she was waiting for, he's standing right there, and told Legion to avoid breaking the furniture. Unfortunately, neither one seemed to appreciate the joke. Legion seemed simply confused, and Xen left in a huff. She is not welcome on my ship.

Legion tells us that, despite disabling the Reaper signal on the dreadnought, the Geth are still not free of the Reapers. There's a Reaper base established on the planet, and within a short space of time the Geth will have another means of transmission in place; they will then be once again deadly enough to easily destroy the Quarians. The location of the base is unknown. The Normandy, with Legion's guidance, will begin immediate search for the target.

In the meantime, Legion has drawn our attention to a Geth server, linked to a significant number of Geth fighters, vulnerable enough for a covert strike. If bombed, the Geth inside the server will simply transfer to another site as soon as the attack hits. The server will have to be disabled, quickly and quietly.

We also have reports that several escape pods from Admiral Koris' ship made it to the surface. Search and rescue is urgently needed in hostile terrain, and the prospect is out of the question for the unstealthy Quarian fleet.

Outraged by the treachery of Gerrel, Garrus has suggested that we invoke Spectre authority and place him under arrest. Javik offered instead to remove him from the equation permanently. I've forbidden both courses of action. Gerrel is indeed guilty of treachery and moreover responsible for this entire predicament, but like it or not, he's also the man we need to fix it. He's the only Quarian Admiral equipped with solid military experience, and this is an irrevocably military matter. Without him, the remaining Admirals would assuredly flounder.

We have urgent matters to attend to. Gerrel can stand trial after this is all over, Geth and Reapers alike. Ashley's muttered comment about pistols at dawn will have to wait.

Should the Quarians withdraw altogether from the conflict at hand, or worse be defeated by the Reaper-enhanced Geth, we would be bringing back from the Far Rim, not urgently-needed reinforcements for the Alliance, but instead a new fleet for the Reapers.


	46. Chapter 46, The Battle of Rannoch

**46 The Battle of Rannoch**

 **-** Tali keeps trying to apologize to me for the Invasion of Rannoch. Clearly she feels partially responsible for this disaster, and wants some other solution. I'm sorry, but at this point I don't see any possible solution other to finish what has been started. I'd held some small hope that the destruction of the Geth flagship and the cessation of its broadcast might release the Geth from Reaper control, but alas, such was not the case. Unless some unexpected good fortune befalls, unless we find some hidden way of erasing in entirety the claws of Reaper Indoctrination from the collective software of the Geth species, the only recourse is their complete and absolute destruction. I'm sorry it's come to this, but I see no other way. I don't want to seem unkind, but if Tali wants to somehow prevent or mitigate this tragedy, the time for that was when the Admiralty voted. It is now too late. The Geth must be exterminated.

 **-** Legion's covert strike is a success. That's one Geth server neutralized, the attached fighter squadrons disabled. The plan was to wipe all infected Geth from the server, effectively killing every locally housed program. But upon completion, Legion revealed that he'd managed to instead liberate a number of the programs from Reaper control, recruited them to our mutual cause against the domination of the Reapers, and downloaded them into Geth Prime platforms. The poor fellow seemed worried that I might mind. Why on Earth would I mind? He'd saved members of his own kind that voluntarily joined the just cause. I can't imagine why I should object.

I've fought Geth Primes, and they are formidable opponents, to say the least. An entire platoon of them constitute a force nearly unstoppable on the battlefield. Facing the extinction of the Geth as a species, I'm glad Legion managed to save at least some of his fellows.

Despite having read the Alliance files detailing my past Cerberus affiliation, including the destruction of the Geth Heretics, Ashley was astonished to find that Legion was an ally, one already proven in battle against the Collectors. It seems my superiors saw fit to remove that little detail about a friendly Geth allying itself with us.

She's not said much on the subject, but Ashley seems disturbed as I had been to discover that Geth are not merely super-smart killer robots. She and I had killed hundreds of them without knowing the worth of their life or the weight of their death. Both of us would do it again without hesitation, but the revelation is nonetheless disquieting. I found her drunk last night, something I've never seen before.

Legion has located the Reaper base, but Koris and his crew are still unaccounted for on the planet. Without Koris, his ships are in disarray, and in no condition to attack. There's little chance that he's still alive on the enemy-infested planet, but we have to try.

 **-** We have Koris, but were unable to save his crew. Thankfully the Admiral escaped with only minor injuries, and has resumed his command. Despite being a controversial Geth sympathizer who vocally opposed this invasion, he is nevertheless loved by his people. In the short term he is desperately needed to rally and orchestrate the civilian fleet. In the long term, when the Reaper War is won, I will personally see to it that Gerrel is brought to justice, and Koris' leadership will be needed more than ever. In the absence of both Koris and Gerrel, the tacit rule of the Quarians would almost certainly fall to that sadist Xen. I am determined to do all that lies within my power to ensure that does not happen.

 **-** We have the location of the Geth base. All Admirals are on deck, the Quarian fleet has tightened its proverbial belt and is ready to resume the offensive. I don't like aiding the aggressor in this fight, but I have no choice.

 **-** We'd been wrong. It wasn't a Reaper base directing the Geth; it was an actual Reaper. This is the fourth time I've been underfoot of one these towering metal behemoths of destruction and hate. By rights I should be dead.

The Reaper, powerful though it was, proved no match for a combined precision strike from the Normandy and the entire Quarian fleet. That great hunk of metal and malice is now no more than a pretentious heap of scrap. And best of all, its destruction freed the Geth.

Immediately following the demise of the Reaper, Legion declared the possibility that he could re-upload the desirable portion of Reaper code to the Geth, granting them the same devastating software upgrades as when under direct Reaper control, but with free will.

It was a near thing for the Quarians. But supported by Admirals Tali and Koris, I managed to appeal to the Quarians and convince them to stand down. The Geth never wanted this war, and attacking now would only get the entire Quarian fleet destroyed. I'm amazed that it worked. There must have been more unspoken opposition to the war among the Quarians than I had thought, else the stand-down order would never have worked.

Legion did more than grant the Geth enhancements, he spent himself in the process to complete their development, granting to all Geth what he alone had hitherto possessed: true self identity, independent of the Geth Consensus. The Geth are no longer merely self-aware, they are each and every one of them an individual. A person.

Even more than that, Legion was the great contradiction: the Synthetic that made peace with Organics. The Reapers run this sick experiment of theirs, this endless cycle of analysis and harvest, based on the belief that we must be controlled because we cannot coexist; they are wrong. Legion proved that. Legion may have given his life, but his example will live forever as proof of the one thing the Reapers fear most, the thing that not only threatens their forces, but undercuts their entire philosophy: the fact that we, the inhabitants of this galaxy, need not be enemies. Where there exists mutual goodwill, peace can be made.

And peace has indeed been made. The Geth have opened their arms to their erstwhile enemies, and have offered to share the planet Rannoch, their mutual homeworld, with the Quarians. Both sides will send their forces to aid us against the Reapers, but for the time being a discreet distance will be kept between Geth and Quarian combat units. No need to push the limits of the still-delicate armistice that has been achieved.

Tali has once again taken her place aboard the Normandy. She admits that she's better at hacking than ordering ships, and wants to see this war through aboard the Normandy, the ship whose name she bears. Once her people labelled her with the name Tali'zorah Vas Normandy as an insult. Now the name of Normandy stands in the minds of the Quarians as the ship that helped them recover their home.

And without killing an entire race in the process.

Perhaps it is all for naught. When this war is decided, will Geth and Quarians alike lie in the communal grave of unnumbered billions destroyed by the Reapers? It may be.

But my hope is better.


	47. Chapter 47, The Fall of Thessia

**47 The Fall of Thessia**

 **-** A priority message from the Citadel. The Asari Councillor has asked to meet me in private, saying she has information too sensitive for transmission, even over an encrypted channel.

The Asari have thus far been spared the horrors of a direct invasion, but Reapers are amassing on their borders with the obvious intent of a full-scale assault. There's no question about whether the Asari can repel the enemy. The only question is how long can they withstand the onslaught before their defences buckle. The Asari have some of the deadliest commandos in existence, and their ships are possibly the most advanced of any fleet in the galaxy, but neither their nature nor their military structure are suited to drawn-out fights of grinding attrition.

While the Asari did indeed send scientists to assist in the construction of the Crucible, and promised us their fleets to defend it when launched, they have volunteered surprisingly little in the way of professional advice in the field where their expertise is unparalleled, that being the knowledge of Prothean history and technology. This secretive transmission from the Asari Councilor could mean that their reticence is at last shaken. Pity it took the prospect of imminent destruction.

We've nearly completed the Crucible, and lack only the Catalyst. If the Asari know something, we need it now. Our fleets won't last forever. Garrus tells me he just advised the Primarch to cease all offensive operations, to preserve Turian fleets for the deployment of the Crucible. If we hope to win this war, it needs to be done sooner rather than later.

Citadel in sight. Shore leave denied. Whatever the Asari Councillor has to say, I don't want any delay in acting on it. Things are coming to a head, the dice are all in the air. We can't afford any mistakes.

 **-** The Asari have an artefact long hidden on their planet, known only to a few scientists and high-ranking government officials. It's been a source of information for Asari advancements for centuries. With luck, it can provide us with a lead on the Crucible.

The Asari have many virtues, but at a time such as this, I would they were endowed with a nature less meditative and more spontaneous. This could be the key to everything, and they've kept silent about it until the Reapers are breathing down their necks. We need to move fast.

I've ordered the ship to Thessia, flank speed. The invasion of Thessia could begin at any moment. Pray we arrive there before the Reapers do.

 **-** Thessia is under attack. Their defence fleet is still engaging, but it won't last for long. Reaper forces have already breached orbital defences and touched down on multiple points, their heaviest concentration being the Asari capital. That's the location of our artefact, in the Asari temple of Athame. Asari forces hold the position for now, but their casualties are mounting. I've ordered the Normandy to run what interference it can for the Asari fleet. Deploying in the shuttle.

 **-** We failed. We lost. The data is gone. Asari defences, weakened by Reaper attack, had nothing left to respond with when gunships attacked the temple; Cerberus forces led by Kai Leng had slipped through the crumbling perimeter. My team pinned down by heavy fire, Leng took the contents of the artefact, a Prothean VI, and left.

We were so close to the key; we had it in our grasp, and it is snatched away. I stood helplessly watching as Lang's gunship flew away, taking with it our hopes of victory while Reapers crushed the beautiful Asari underfoot. Thessia, the heart of the most advanced and beautiful race in the Galaxy, now a broken flower, crushed under the tread of the unstoppable demons.

Poor Liara is crushed. She nearly came to blows with Javik for scoffing at the defeat of the Asari. Her composure recovered, she's buried herself in her data consoles, helping orchestrate the retreat and provide what evacuations lie within our power to effect. There is little I can do for her, and little she or I can do for her people. Never before, not even at Vancouver, have I felt so keenly the futility of my own puny strength against the awful might of these juggernauts of death.

Cerberus has done it. They've achieved the impossible, making themselves a subject of priority exceeding even the Reapers themselves. For months, we've fought Cerberus over our shoulder, fending of their attacks while focusing on the Reapers. That changes now. Cerberus stole the knowledge of the Catalyst, and it's time to take it back. The Illusive Man has given me cause for anger before, but now, he has made me desperate. He might not be glad that he did.

EDI and Specialist Traynor tracked Lang's shuttle, and charted its projected course through the Thessia Relay. It stops in the Ierra system. Ierra, home to the planet Horizon, the location of a widely-publicized sanctuary for refugees. All transmissions from that area are blocked. I have a bad feeling about this.

There is a definite alteration in the mood of the crew. With the list of allies growing ever stronger, with the Crucible so near completion, I believe all had begun to hope that victory was near, that no more worlds would perish. Or at the least, there had been hope that Thessia, the flower of the milky way, would be spared. Now suppressed hope is replaced by grim countenance and foreboding silence.

If Thessia cannot be protected, it will be avenged. The Reapers will pay for all their sins in due course; but first, Cerberus. When I see the steely glint in Ashley's eyes, the ominous precision with which Garrus readies his weapon, the unusually sinister glower of the last Prothean, and the grave composure of Liara, I see the quiet before the storm.

I almost feel sorry for Cerberus.


	48. Chapter 48, The Death of the Hell Hound

**48 The Final Piece**

 **-** Horizon in sight. Sporadic heat signatures are occurring at the Sanctuary complex; definite sign of disaster, and almost certainly of combat. Whatever's going on down there, it's happening ground zero on a massive refugee housing center, and civilian casualties are all but guaranteed. The sooner we can contain the situation the better. We'll go in low and see who's killing who, then participate as appropriate.

 **-** I had thought Cerberus had done its worst, that nothing could exceed the depths to which they had already stooped. I was wrong.

Cerberus had been running the refugee centre on Horizon as a gilded web to ensnare the displaced. What was by all outward appearance a refuge from privation and danger was nothing less than a death camp. No, it was worse. They only killed some of the subjects. The refugees were taken and transformed into Husks. The Illusive Man had contracted Henry Lawson, Miranda's father, to run this facility as a means to produce and to study Reaper forces and discover the means to control them, with the ultimate intent of controlling the Reapers themselves.

I can't believe it. I'd once thought the Illusive Man crooked and ruthless, then deluded and a tool, but I never would have thought any Human could have concocted such a twisted and diabolical scheme as this, let alone on an industrial scale. To subject thousands of fellow Humans to the same horrific and agonizing end that they would have suffered at the hands of the Reapers is unthinkable. Is every last Cerberus soldier, engineer, and desk-worker so thoroughly corrupted that this butchery committed en masse under their watch meant nothing to them?

If Cerberus personnel are all Indoctrinated, the Indoctrination is of a quality of derangement, not control. The fighting we found was the last of a bloody contest between Cerberus and a Reaper strike force, clearly sent to destroy the research base and all the information within it. I don't know if it is actually possible for Cerberus to have discovered a means to control Reapers, but it's clear the Reapers themselves are taking no chances. It seems Cerberus put up a tough fight; we walked over innumerable bodies, Cerberus and Reaper troops alike lying dead throughout the length of that cursed facility. The deceptively white and orderly walls and floors marked with dark blood, and the smell of death everywhere. Not a single civilian refugee survived that massacre.

I don't know how many innocents were lead to the slaughter. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, it makes no difference. Cerberus, which prided itself on being a force for the defence of Humanity, used the Reapers' own methods on the very people they were meant to protect. My mind refused to comprehend the extent of the horror. But then how could it? How could any mind fathom the unimaginable pain and terror that facility turned out in its gruesome work? But this is only an example in stark contrast. On Earth alone there are millions of souls suffering the same fate at the hands of the Reapers. Sanctuary was but a single facility. The Reapers have made a hundred more.

Leng had left before we arrived, taking with him the completed research data; Lawson he left to the Reapers. My team and I carved our way through the last Cerberus and Reaper forces left in the base, and found Lawson in a stand-off with Miranda, her sister Oriana held by their father as a human shield.

Hostage rescue training takes no prisoners. Mr. Lawson will not have opportunity to stand trial for his deeds. A higher Judge than the Alliance could provide will decide his ultimate sentence. Neither Oriana nor Miranda need fear him any more.

Miranda did us a favour and tagged Leng with a tracer before he bugged out. We have our destination: the Illusive Man's centre of operations is in the Anadius system. Alliance Command will be pleased to hear this. After having for so long been a menace to Humanity, and the entire galaxy, the centre of the Cerberus web has at last been found.

 **-** Alliance Command responds. Fifth Fleet is dispatched to Anadius; the Normandy will have the full weight of the Alliance Navy backing her. No halfway measures. Hackett's orders are to seize the data and destroy Cerberus.

It's been a long time coming.

 **-** Anadius System locked down. The net has been drawn. There is no escape. Cerberus defence fleet moving to engage. Let's remind them what it means to be Alliance.

 **-** Damn the Illusive Man. Damn him to hell and back again. Our mission, as a mission, is a success; Cerberus is defeated, their main fleet and central base destroyed; we have the Prothean data, but all too late.

The Catalyst, the last piece for the Crucible, is the Citadel. We should have known all along. The two massive stations combined have the power to destroy the Reapers with their own tools. The Citadel controls the Relay Network, and the Crucible serves as a colossal spark plug and guidance system to jump-start and overcharge of the Relays to target the Reapers. The Crucible turns the Reaper's own creation against them.

Had we known this before, we could have taken the now completed Crucible to the Citadel, established the link, and fired it up. The war would have been over, the Reapers caught broadsided and destroyed by their own tools. But that cannot be. The Reapers have taken the Citadel; the Illusive Man learned of the nature of the Catalyst from the Prothean VI, and told the Reapers. Now the last piece of the puzzle is in their grasp. They've taken the Citadel to Earth and sealed it shut, surrounding it with every ship they have. What could have been a bloodless victory for us will instead be a desperate struggle, a grim contest of strength against a foe whose power eclipses ours even as a river surpasses a stream. We cannot win through strength alone.

Kai Leng is dead, and with him most of Cerberus, but the Illusive Man himself remains elusive. The nest has been incinerated, but the chief rat is still at large. He'd already left for the Citadel before we ensnared his fleet. He will not escape again.

There are still some diverse fragments of Cerberus scattered throughout the Galaxy, but as an organization, they're history. With Cerberus dealt with, we can turn our full attention to the Reapers.

 **-** The word has been spread, the time has come. The final engagement of this war commences at Earth in forty-eight hours. Every fleet has responded, every course set.

Operation Skyfall has begun.


	49. Chapter 49, The End of th Reapers

**49 The End of the Reapers**

 **-** The fleets are amassed, all forces assembled; the assault to reclaim Earth is about to begin. The entrenched Reapers await, an impenetrable hedge of diverse abominations over-arched by an impassable blockade of Reaper destroyers and dreadnoughts. Were this the sum of matters, the prospect would be more than grim. But we have friends on the ground. The resistance, led by Admiral Anderson, gives us some hope of success.

We need to open the arms of the Citadel and move the Crucible in range to dock with it. The obstacles are tremendous. The fortified station is sealed and surrounded by the entire Reaper fleet, rendering any direct boarding attempt a useless gesture; even the Normandy can't get us past that dense blockade. The only means of entry is through a trans-orbit beam from the Citadel to Earth. The Reapers are using it to transport Human prisoners, living and dead, from London to the Citadel for processing. Landing anywhere near the beam is impossible: the airspace for miles is covered by HADES defence cannons. Our only means of accessing the Beam will be with a ground assault, landing the troops beyond effective range of the densest concentration of AA guns. The danger zone for landing ships is too broad to avoid completely; our soldiers would be wading through the English channel to reach London, and we'd still have taken fire while landing. None of the options are good. Our only hope is a compromise of danger.

While the primary fleet, designated Sword, engages the Reapers, a small flight of shuttles will attempt to land on the outskirts of London. Our vanguard force will make a combined strike in unison with Anderson's resistance forces, and eliminate local AA guns in the vicinity. Once the airspace there is clear, the full extent of our combined ground forces, designated Hammer, will land, link up with the resistance, and push for the Beam. It will be a race against time, carving our way through the entrenched enemy positions to get to the Beam and board the Citadel before our fleets are destroyed. Once we're aboard, we'll not only have to find the arm controls and open the station, we'll also have to neutralize whatever block it was that the Council put in place to separate the Citadel from control of the Relay Network. Once the Citadel is online, Shield fleet will escort the Crucible into range. We connect the two, and fire it up.

It's a long shot. The Crucible will be the Reapers' primary target, suffering heavy attack the moment it shows its nose. Numerous though our fleets are, we cannot guarantee the Crucible's safety in direct contest with the Reapers. Beyond weakening the Reapers as much as possible and drawing their fire to the immediate threat of our attacking ships, our best hope for protecting the Crucible will be achieving enough success in the ground assault to draw their ships away from the battle in space. We'll be fighting at a disadvantage in London with minimal air support at best, and we can guarantee the Reapers hitting hard once we get close to the beam.

And so it comes down to this. Our only hope for defeating the Reapers lies in one final, desperate battle. So be it. No more halfway measures, no more running. The game has changed. We take the fight to the Reapers with everything we have. And so the stag turns at bay and rends the wolves. Let them feel our wrath.

 **-** We're ground-side. Hammer has landed, but despite the hole we opened in the aerial defences, our landing craft took heavy casualties: only fifty percent of infantry forces are accounted for. The fleets are engaging, the infantry forming up. Anderson is mustering the officers and making final preparations for the assault. We have a few minutes before we start our push for the Beam.

It is midnight here in London. Black clouds roil above, reflecting the discharge of artillery; the wrecked and shattered buildings are shaken by the rumble of explosions; and all is overcast by the pale and baleful light of the distant Beam. "A land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness."

The team might be forgiven some trepidation at the prospect of the battle before us, but I see no fear in their eyes. Instead, every face is lit with resolve, even grim satisfaction. Despite the danger and chaos, there is peace in our ranks. This is what we've planned for, trained for, fought for, and in some cases, died for.

This is it. After all of the fighting, all of the dying, hardship, and sacrifice to oppose the Reapers, in this cycle and the countless that came before, it all comes down to this. This is the culmination of everything we've done, everything we've fought for. Our own efforts would have been for nought without the Protheans before us. They laid the groundwork for the advantages we hold. They gave us the means to defeat Sovereign, and the weapons we made from his corpse. They were the last in a long tale of defiant who tried and failed to finish the Crucible, each passing on, hidden in some discreet corner, this ultimate hope for a final end to the Cycle.

Everything we've accomplished, every battle we've fought, every sacrifice that's ever been made in the struggle against the Reapers is consummated in this moment. Despite the long odds, we have a chance. We've come closer than any civilization before us to defeating the Reapers. None after us will have another chance such as this: failure is not an option. We stop the Reapers, here, today, not merely for the sake of the living or the lives of the lost, but for the sake of every sentient being born in the future. We will save the living; we will exact vengeance on behalf of those who fell before us, and we will grant future civilizations freedom from the fate of the past. Though it cost all our lives, we will prevail. One way or another, the Cycle ends today. We come to destroy the Reapers, at any cost: no halfways, no excuses. Every man and woman in this battle knows the score, and have come to battle knowing most of them will never return. They've already made their sacrifice, and face the Reapers with the fearlessness of those with nothing to lose. We face the Reapers today with a force such as they've never seen before: Human, Turian, Krogan, Asari, Salarian, Quarian, even Rachni and Geth, an entire galaxy mobilized and united against them in one massive force of retribution, a long overdue host of vengeance for the countless innocents slain across an unnumbered series of bloody harvests.

And should the ultimate price be paid, should all our lives be spent in the destruction of the Reapers, it will not have been in vain. Though it cost every drop of mortal blood that flows through the veins of the defiant, the Reapers' end has come. It is long overdue.

Should this be my last entry, let the record show the highest commendation for my crew. Many credit me with this chance, but I could never have done it without the brave men and women who have helped me through the rough path we tread. Nihlus, whose initiative gave me the authority to track down Saren. Tali, who provided the information to prove his guilt. Liara, without whom the warning of the Beacons would have been useless. Kaidan, who laid down his life for the rest of us. Miranda, who brought me back from the dead. Mordin, whose sacrifice gave us the alliance with the Krogan. Legion, without whom the Geth would have been lost. Garrus, whose calibrations preserved the Normandy on countless occasions. Ashley, who with James saved the Crucible plans from Cerberus. There's not a one of us that hasn't owed our life at least once to Dr. Chakawas. And Anderson, our captain who first sent us to destroy Sovereign, and has now given us this foothold on Earth, our last grip on the cliff of doom. All of them have saved my life on countless occasions, and ensured the success of missions critical to where we now stand. It has been my privilege and honour to have served with these friends, the dearest and truest that any soldier ever had.

With so many vital threads woven together, the loss of any one of which would have meant ruin for all, I cannot believe that our success is a product of mere chance. Having been preserved on so many occasions when chance would have dictated failure, we stand where no other race in history has stood: against all odds, we have been granted this one chance to destroy the Reapers. We must not, we will not, fail. May He that guides us still watch over us all.

Perhaps it may be, against all odds, that I survive this last and greatest trial. If so, I may live a life of one with my beloved Ash. But if only she survives, the new life born of her will live safe and free.

Whatever happens, this vow I make: the Sun will rise over the ashes of dead Reapers.

But our time is up, the moment of reckoning is at hand. Every gun is loaded, every heart steeled, every mind focused. The time has come. Death to the Reapers. Life, hope, and peace to those who survive. They will see a future free from fear.

So fill to us the parting glass, and drink a health whatever befalls.

And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me.

This is Commander Shepard signing off.

* * *

 **TRANSMISSION FROM COMMANDER SHEPARD:**

"ADMIRAL, I'VE GOT IT. ….ONE MORE MIRACLE. **GET THE FLEET OUT OF HERE.**

 **VICTORY IN THREE, TWO, ONE, DESTRUC…"**


End file.
